1.63 acres of mangroves destroyed: Panel

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The destruction of mangroves at the Mangrove Theme Park is just the tip of an iceberg when compared to the larger destruction of mangroves in the State, concluded the expert panel headed by B Madhusoodana Kurup, which looked into the controversy.

The committee has reported that mangroves have been destroyed in a total of 1.63 acres, 35 cents of which is dense mangroves and over 1.2 acres sparse mangroves.

The 38-page final report was submitted by Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA) chairman C T S Nair to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) additional director Senthilvel on Wednesday evening.

A copy of the same was submitted to Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and Chief secretary P Prabhakaran late in the evening.

The Committee found that hydrology and the free flow of water was affected due to construction of a road and bridge in the theme park. The committee after collecting evidence from the site, held discussion with the Eco-Tourism Society, which has the ownership of the park.

One lakh visitors

“The Society admitted that there were over one lakh visitors to the park since it opened. This is very much beyond the carrying capacity of the park and this showed the commercial intentions of the park,” the report said.

“Though the mangrove theme park has created an awareness on mangroves, the intention is more of a commercial nature as can be seen from the brochure which lays more focus on recreational facilities,’’ the report continued.

The team had also taken a look at the larger mangrove destruction in the vicinity of the park, as Kannur has almost 80 percent of the mangroves that are remaining in the State.

However, the Committee has refrained from giving a total economic value to the environmental destruction at Pappinissery. This is because many of such valuations have been found to be based on shaky assumptions and unrealistic.

The report quotes a number of such unrealistic examples from various States in the country.

4 types of endangered fauna found

The inquiry team, looking into the eco-sensitivity and biodiversity of the region found that this area houses four types of endangered fauna. They also found two new types of grass species in the area.

The report, has given a number of recommendations including the urgent need to bring mangroves under public control to arrest their decline.

They have suggested the declaration of mangrove forests as community reserves and that the process of aquisition of mangroves needs to be stepped up.

They also suggested a finetuning of the incentivised and particpatory mangrove forest protection, which the Forest Department has already launched in the State.

Highly placed sources said that the preliminary report compiled by the eight-member team had been altered a great deal after the CZMA chairman visited Pappinissery last week.

The members of the inquiry team included Muraleedhara Kurup, Hari Narayanan, K V Thomas, Kamalakshan Kokkal, C N Mohanan, C Sushanth and two nominees from the Forest Department.