He was earlier eking out his living by converting his one acre of land into dollar spinning prawn ghery near Brahamni river bank at the fringes of Bhitarkanika National Park, but being motivated on the importance of mangrove forest, he recently handed over his entire patch of land to the Forest Department for converting into mangrove vegetation.
Meet Dillip Kumar Mandal, a resident of Rajendranarayanpur under Talachua Marine police limits ,who has handed over his one acre land to the Kanika forest range officials.
“Earlier, I used to make prawn ghery on the patch of land and managed to earn a hefty amount. But I came to know recently from the Forest department about the importance of mangrove forest in the costal belt. The DFO of Rajnagar Mangrove Forest and Wildlife Division and the Ranger of Kanika forest range recently organised an awareness meeting in the area about the importance of mangrove forest. I came to know that mangrove forest plays an important role in protecting the areas from catastrophes like cyclone , tsunami, along with maintaining ecological balance and controlling the environmental pollution,” stated Mandal.
Mangroves are the earth’s natural filtering system, capable of absorbing pollutants ,carbon dioxide and store carbon in their sediments, thereby lessening the impacts of global warming, he stated.
The locals and prawn mafias have denuded mangrove forests, that act as a bio-shield ,and converted into homestead land or set up prawn gheries by making the coastal area more prone to natural disasters, he said further.
Mandal told that he was also influenced to know from the Kanika Ranger that one Satyabrata Sahu, a resident of Nalitapatia, too handed over his one acre land to the Forest department for converting into a mangrove plantation.
The coastal belt of Kendrapada is the house of natural calamities. Due to loss of mangrove forest, people are increasingly becoming prone to natural calamities like cyclone which hit the district in regular intervals. Even, the recent cyclonic storm ‘Yaas’ too played havoc in the locality with tidal surge in the sea side pockets. “So if we will not conserve mangrove forest, then our existence will be at stake,” Mandal told.
Kanika Ranger Manas Kumar Sahu thanked Mandal for the land donation.
While observing the International Mangrove Day -2021, the forest personnel of Bhitarkanika, led by DFO of Rajanagar Dr Jangyadatta Pati, planted mangrove vegetation on the two acres of land with the participation of the land donors recently.