Satyajodha S. Kaushik and Himanshu G. Dawda
Abstract
Since many decades, mangrove ecosystem has been continuously under threat and shrinking worldwide. This loss has made a very severe impact on wetland and estuarine ecosystem, the degradation of these mangroves, has led to increase in natural disasters i.e., frequent flooding in most of the estuarine and river areas. Considering the importance of mangroves in the restoration of ecosystem, the present research aims to propagate selected mangrove species in Mumbai, across mithi river banks. Propagations were achieved using different methods like by seeds, stem/ shoot cuttings and air-layering. It was observed that rapid and fast root growth in maximum plants is achieved through seedling propagation, followed by air-layering in case of tall growing mangroves. The stem cutting method, for propagation of some associate species like Suaeda nudiflora. These propagated mangroves after rooting, were then grown in mithi river soil and irrigated with river water. It was found that all these plants propagated by different methods grew and established themselves very easily and faster in Mithi river soil, proving that they can be easily regenerated in this ecosystem. Based on the above studies we have developed a block model for the Restoration of mangroves across the Mithi river area designing of the block model is based on the zonation of different true mangroves and associate mangroves, influx and outflux of river water and proper channelization of the Mithi river banks, to facilitate proper growth of mangroves.