Mangroves along 15 km length damaged in floods

The rain ravaged district of Cuddalore has seen about 15 km length of young mangroves planted a decade ago and estimated to be worth about Rs 10 crore destroyed in floods, an NGO which had undertaken the exercise said here today.
"Mangroves planted 10 years back by Aalamaram at Thiyagavalli village in Cuddalore District have been destroyed to a length of 15 km," Arjunan Elayaraja, Secretary of the unit said.
He said that the NGO has planted the mangrove saplings on the shoreline along the backwaters of River Uppanar. These young mangroves in the west bank were destroyed, but those on the east bank escaped the fury of the floods, he said.

Following this, the NGO brought in imported mangrove saplings from West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh under the guidelines of Prof. T Venugopal of Agriculture College, Annamalai University and M Rajan, Assistant Director, Department of Agriculture, Cuddalore District, he said.
"Mangrove ecosystems are threatened by climate change. We review the state of knowledge of mangrove vulnerability and responses to predicted climate change and consider adaptation options of all climate change outcomes. Relative sea-level rise may be the greatest threat to Mangroves," he said.
Elayaraja said most mangrove sediment surface elevations do not keep pace with sea level rise, though long-term studies from a larger number of regions are needed. Rising sea levels would have the greatest impact on mangroves experiencing net lowering in sediment elevation, he said.

"We started to plant as many as one lakh saplings of mangroves in 50 villages, including Thiyagavalli and Nadu Thittu Raja Pettai on the bank of River Uppanar. Those villages suffered extensive damages in the floods," he said.
Cuddalore District Collector, S Suresh Kumar inspected the saplings.
Elayaraja said the worth of destroyed mangroves is estimated at Rs ten crore.