Bhitarkanka National Park

Bhitarkanka National Park

Subject: Environment

Context: Odisha’s Bhitarkanika National Park, the second-largest mangrove forest in India, IS under severe threat due to planned diversion of freshwater from the Brahmani river basin.

Concept:

Bhitarkanka National Park

• Bhitarkanika is a unique habitat of Mangrove Forests crisscrossed with numerous creeks and mud flats located in Kendra Para district of Orissa.
• It is a Ramsar Site under Ramsar Convention on wetlands.
• Bhitarkanika located in the estuary of Brahmani, Baitarani, and Dharma & Mahanadi River systems.

• Bhitarkanika National Park is a prime habitat of leopard cat, fishing cat, jungle cat, hyena, wild boar, spotted deer, sambar, porcupine, dolphin, salt water crocodile including partially white crocodile, python, king cobra, water monitor lizards, terrapin, marine turtle, kingfisher, wood pecker, hornbill, bar headed geese, pintail, white bellied sea eagle, tern, sea gull, waders and a large variety of resident and migratory birds.
• Nutrients from Bhitarkanika are flushed out to the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary, which attracts the world’s largest population of Olive Ridley sea turtles for congregation and nesting. Nearly half a million turtles arrive here every winter.

What is the issue?

• The Talcher-Angul coal mines, steel and power-generating units as well as the Kalinga Nagar steel and power hub in Jajpur district were drawing enormous quantities of freshwater from the Brahmani river.
• According to activists the state government had ignored the need to conserve it for posterity despite it being a noted Ramsar Convention wetland

Damage to Bhitarkanika

• According to activists no mangrove ecosystem could survive without freshwater.
• Freshwater mixed with seawater near the lower end of the Brahmani and Kharasrota rivers to produce brackish water ideal for mangroves.
• Brackish water was also high in nutrients for a variety of life forms like crustaceans, fish, aquatic flora and water birds.
• Bhitarkanika had seven species of kingfishers due to the salinity gradient of its water who would abandon the area if the water turned completely saline. Mangroves that grew in brackish water, were very sensitive to changes in salinity.
• Saline ingress will cause commercially important species like freshwater shrimp, mullets, mud crabs and bhetki to disappear, leading to a decline in the incomes of thousands of fishermen in Kendrapara district.
• There shall be a quantum jump in human-crocodile conflict since the estuarine crocodiles of the park shall leave the core sanctuary area and migrate upstream once salinity increases. They might move up the river to Dhenkanal district. Many local people are likely to be attacked by the saltwater crocodiles while bathing in the Brahmani and Kharasrota rivers.
• Without the mangroves, the Gahirmatha Marine Sanctuary will become a marine desert and lose its richness and diversity of marine life.

Source: DownToEarth