Restoring mangroves of Sundarbans

The year 2020 has been nothing short of disastrous events, especially with the arrival of the deadly pandemic of Coronavirus still affecting globally. From May 16 to May 21, super cyclone Amphan dismantled the lives and livelihoods of the mangrove forest, because of which more than 30 lakh people lost their jobs and houses. Also, due to the increase in salinity, agricultural activities got hampered.

To provide a sustainable best practice to regain the losses and help the affected people to generate their livelihood, 'Kolkata Society for Cultural Heriatge' (KSCH), a leading social enterprise in Eastern India, started the initiative of mangrove plantation drives in three blocks at Sundarbans - Samshernagar, Hingalgunj and Gosaba. Begun under the banner of 'The Community Forest', the initiative is being led by the community to restore the mangrove forestry. In this project, more than 3,560 economically distressed people got jobs to sustain their livelihoods. The project is also helping to provide Rs 2 crore for these rural people per year.

'KSCH' started this environmental project to achieve goals like helping poor communities to gather income; preserving heritage of Sundarbans; promotion of age old culture related to mangroves; defending the coastal lives of Sundarbans by cultivating mangrove saplings and developing the biodiversity of mangrove forestry.

Every year, the target is to cultivate Rs 4 lakh mangrove saplings through village-level community led rural nurseries. Local affected people will take care of the maintenance and operations of these nurseries. The NGO is helping them by providing techno-managerial support. The initiative has also engaged women from self-help groups to join this movement. As per their plan, approximately after three months of the cultivation process, mangroves have reached the desired height for plantations. After that, these saplings will be adopted by the concerned stakeholders.