Yahoo – AFP,
Ashraf Khan, 5 Jan 2015
 |
A boat
laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close to
the Arabian Sea in
Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)
|
Thick
mangroves have long protected Karachi, southern Pakistan's sprawling
metropolis, from battering by the Arabian Sea, but pollution, badly managed
irrigation and years of illegal logging have left this natural barrier in a
parlous state.
Experts
fear that loss of the natural barrier formed by the mangroves could put the
city of nearly 20 million people at greater risk from violent storms and even
tsunamis.
 |
Talib
Kacchi looks at a destroyed
mangrove swamp along a beach on the
Arabian Sea in
Karachi (AFP Photo/
Asif Hassan)
|
The river
delta is home to the shimmering green mangrove, a delicate ecosystem that
thrives in the mingled salt and fresh water.
Fisherman
Talib Kacchi, 50, recalled taking shelter from monsoon storms in the mangroves
as a young man.
"When
there were storms, we would have tied as many as four boats together with the
mangroves, and then we would sit, gossip and sing songs," he said.
But the
mangrove is a shadow of its former self -- from 600,000 hectares in the early
20th century now barely 130,000 hectares remain, according to marine biologist
Mohammad Moazzam Khan.
The rest
has fallen victim to illegal loggers, pollution from nearby industry and
changes to the river flow caused by irrigation upstream on the agricultural
plains of Sindh and Punjab provinces.
The
fishermen, who make a livelihood from the fish and shellfish that shelter in
the mangroves, have warned about their decline for years.
But a short
boat ride from Karachi's Ibrahim Haidri fish harbour finds plenty of locals
cutting the mangrove and carrying it away.
 |
A boat
laden with chopped mangroves passes along an inlet close
to the Arabian Sea in
Karachi (AFP Photo/Asif Hassan)
|
Some use
foliage as fodder for cattle while others scrape a living by selling branches
for fuel.
"I
sell one bundle for 10 to 20 rupees (10 to 20 cents)," Haji Ibrahim, a
frail old man who had just anchored his small boat at the shallow waters of the
harbour told AFP.
Cutting the
mangroves is illegal but the maximum punishment for cutting the mangroves is a
36,000 rupee ($360) fine, doubled for habitual offenders, and in any case,
prosecutions are extremely rare.
Pollution
Karachi is
Pakistan's biggest city and economic and industrial heart. The rapid growth of
factories has contributed to pollution in the Indus delta.
Near a
power plant to the east of the city, the mangroves are dry and withered,
robbing fish of their spawning grounds and angering Kamal Shah of the Pakistan
Fisherfolk Forum.
"I
really cannot understand why you would attack the mangrove. It's stupid -- it's
like emptying your neighbour's stomach to fill your own," Shah said.
"If we
were in another country, the mangrove would be valued and protected."
 |
A crow sits
on a chopped mangrove in
a mangrove swamp on a beach on the
Arabian Sea in
Karachi (AFP Photo/
Asif Hassan)
|
The Arabian
and Eurasian tectonic plates meet at the Makran Trench, off the coast, and the
boundary has the potential to create major earthquakes.
An undersea
quake in 1945 generated a tsunami that hit Karachi, killing 4,000 people, and a
recent UN simulation suggested the city could be wiped out if a big tremor hit
again.
"It is
a very important ecosystem... it is the first line of defence against cyclones,
strong surges, tsunami and other natural calamities," said marine
biologist Khan, who works for the WWF wildlife NGO.
But there
is some hope. A drive to replant the mangroves in recent years has seen them
slowly regain some of the losses.
"It
(plantation) is going very well. There are very few areas in the world where
the mangroves cover is increasing and Pakistan is one of them," Khan said.
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