Mangroves are getting extinct due to natural and anthropogenic causes. Sundari is one of them that was once luxuriant in Sundarbans (see the small clips)
The Saudis are replanting a lot of mangroves under their "Saudi Green Initiative" program, that was started by permanently setting aside those lands as "Ecological Restoration Preserves" first.
The way that India can get started, is they are members of the new "Middle East Green Initiative" that the Saudis announced at COP27, with a promise by India to start planting at least 2 BILLION trees, so mangroves could be a part of that planting.
The other issue, why the Saudis have a focus on the mangroves, is that they sequester a lot of carbon, so each of the 24 countries who are members, can start sequestering carbon to start reversing Global Warming.
The Saudi plan was initiated by my 2002 proposal at https://www.ecoseeds.com/cool.html that was adapted by their government in August 2010 to set aside 200 million hectares as "Ecological Restoration Preserves"
If India were able to adopt the same plan, to set aside a large part of the Thar desert for example, as an Ecological Restoration Preserve, and start replanting the native plants, and pay the local people who have a marginal living by grazing or dry land farming, and instead, pay them to do the native plant restoration and be the caretakers.
Picture from the COP27 meeting that you can see at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QO8PcbxOu0Y
Craig Carlton Dremann India has also initiated a major programme on restoration of mangroves following the Tsunami 2004. Many states, like Gujarat, Maharashtra, etc are promoting mangrove plantations on a significant scale.
Viswanathan P. Karthiayani ...Whatever scale that mangroves have been planted in India in the past will be a microscopic number compared to the number of trees that could potentially be planted in India as a member of the "Middle East Green Initiative". The Saudis have already started their tree planting last year, at the rate of one million PER WEEK.
However, apparently Iran thinks that is not fast enough, so is currently setting up nurseries to plant 4.5 MILLION trees per week for the next four years.
All that Abhijit Mitra needs to do, is contact the representative for the planting in India, and make sure that mangroves are being included, as they are a very important part of the Saudi planting.
On dry ground, the India planting of these billions of trees, will need people to invent methods to plant the native grasses and wildflowers underneath those trees. And also plant a large number of trees in the Thar desert,. to extend the monsoon rainfall eastward, so it does not stall over that desert and cause floods in the future.
That is what caused the flood in Pakistan last year, the rain got stalled when it hit the desert and was blocked by the atmospheric dust cloud that you can see here.
Mangroves extinct due to many reasons of which environmental conditions and man made activities are very important. A detailed study on species must be carried out to find out what reason the species extinct from the natural system. Many methods are there to save or rejuvenate the extinct species. Restoration of species is one method through which we can reintroduce the species in the same place for which the seeds will be collected from available sources and germinated in the nursery and transported to the natural system. The second method is afforestation for which the seeds will be collected from available source and germinate in the nursery and planted in the new environments where the environmental condition is condusive. Third method is tissue culture for which explants can be collected from available source and cultured in ex situ method and raise seedling for plantation. Finally, cutting , grafting and airlayering methods also tried for the species enhance the seedling production.
In this regard, Prof. K. Kathiresan and his team of people (Annamalai University, Faculty of Marine Sciences) did lot of works and created more that 30 ha. of mangroves artificially through various techniques, these mangroves saved more than 1000 human lives during Tsunami in south India. Still Prof. K.K and his team doing lot of works through restoring the mangroves.
Saving extinct mangroves involves a combination of measures to protect and restore existing mangrove ecosystems, as well as to prevent further mangrove loss and degradation. Here are some strategies that can be used to save extinct mangroves:
It is important to note that saving extinct mangroves requires a coordinated effort among government agencies, NGOs, communities, and the private sector.
Rainwater Management can help by creating artificial Catchmens around Mangrove forests. Below are some videos of our work in Surat, India.
https://youtu.be/INbwYna_rR8
https://youtu.be/INbwYna_rR8
https://youtu.be/wl1JWmW0zUw
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