New plan to conserve mangroves in Kozhikode district

Kozhikode: Kozhikode district administration is planning a mangrove conservation project identifying its swamps and properly documenting them, as directed by the chief secretary after its success in Kannur. It also ensures steps to protect the mangrove forests by acquiring land from private owners.

The forest department's statistics show Kerala has 1,671 hectares of mangrove vegetation of which 755 are in Kannur. Kozhikode stands second on the list with 293 hectares.

About 88 percent of the total mangrove areas in Kerala are under private ownership and rest with the forest department.

"The district collector has called a preliminary meeting of revenue officials on Thursday to discuss its implementation," said district forest officer K.K. Sunil Kumar.

"As a first step, the village officers would give the detailed statistics of mangrove vegetation within their limits. Also, we need to prepare a list of government-owned land, private properties and encroachments to sort out the matter better."

In Kannur, the government-owned mangrove forest land of 100 acres has declared as Mangrove Reserve Forest and the administration is awaiting sanction to acquire private mangrove swamps.

Fast decline

Mangroves provide many ecological, environmental and socio-economic benefits. However, biodiverse mangrove ecosystems are fast declining the world over.

Presently, in Kerala, the extent of undisturbed mangroves has been reduced to just 150 hectares mostly distributed in Ernakulam, Kannur and Kozhikode Districts, but potential area comes to around 1670 ha.

The vegetation has diminished in its extent drastically and has acquired a threatened status in Kerala.