Pitchavaram farmers keen to conserve mangrove

A unique model weaving in bio-shields and ensuring livelihood security of the locals has been fashioned in the backwaters of the picturesque Pitchavaram. The village is famous for its mangroves, which are said to have acted as an effective shield against the Dec 2004 tsunami.
For the past decade and half, the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) had been trying hard to rope in the Pitchavaram locals in raising mangrove plantations, but without much success. Seeing no livelihood prospects, the villagers were not exactly thrilled with the project.
But after the giant tsunami waves failed to find chinks through the mangroves thus sparing the village from its onslaught, the scientific community noticed a palpable change in the attitude of the local community.
Fishing communities, usually reluctant to participate in mangrove plantation, have now begun to show interest in restoring and conserving mangrove and non-mangrove bioshields. “We have also devised a brackish water farming system to integrate mangroves plantation and culture of fish and crabs. The latter would provide them with a livelihood as well,’’ said Dr V Selvam, director, MSSRF. In the new model, a series of bunds are formed along a stretch of plantation with brackish water in between. At the edge of the bunds, mangrove plantation was taken up and in between, halophytes were grown as cash crops (used by fisher folk for seasoning their fish curries), he said.
At present, MSSRF has tied up with a private farm that has earned a sizable profit of Rs 30,000 in four months by farming fish and crabs in a 0.7-acre farm. “Fisheries department can make use of the system through self-help groups in its unused farms as the state has about 30,000 ha of saline affected land in the coastal districts,’’ Dr
Selvam noted.
The farms need no artificial seeds, no chemicals and no energy as required in prawn farms. A tidal outlet ensures there is at least 3 feet of standing water in the farm. Various species could be used for mangrove and halophytes.

Pulicat bird sanctuary to shrink. Will it cost conservation?

The saint-like stillness of tall flamingos standing in the shallow waters and schoolchildren clambering on to bullock carts that wade across the lake to reach the mainland — these are the two common sights at the Pulicat lake bird sanctuary.

For long, the fisherfolk living in islets within the sanctuary have held that efforts to protect the pristine environs for the exotic birds have denied them the fruits of development. Now, some relief is on the way. The state forest department has proposed to exclude 13 villages from the limits of the 153-sqkm sanctuary to allow development works there.

A bridge is being built after the state government obtained special permission from the Union environment ministry; it will be inaugurated next month. “When the sanctuary was set up in the lake lying along the TN-Andhra Pradesh coast, the villages were also included within its limits. The department has decided to exclude 13 villages from the sanctuary’s limits after realizing that it would not be affected,” said a senior forest officer.

Villagers, forest dept were at loggerheads

Providing some relief to fisherfolk living in the area, the state forest department has proposed to exclude 13 villages from the limits of the 153-sqkm Pulicat lake bird sanctuary to allow development works there. The villages have a population of around 20,000. For years, the villagers have been using ferry services or bullock carts to travel among the islands within the sanctuary and reach the mainland.

“The proposal is to exclude 10 villages in Ponneri taluk and three in Gummidipoondi taluk from the sanctuary limits,” said a field officer involved in the survey of the villages. “The villagers have fought with the forest department staff on many occasions as they felt it was stalling developmental activities,” said an employee of the sanctuary.

As the forest department has to clear any proposal for development works within the sanctuary — be it for tourism, public works, rural development or highways — under the Wildlife Act, 1972, it has always faced opposition from the villagers.