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		<title>Mongabay India</title>
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		<link>https://india.mongabay.com/list/salinisation/</link>
		<description>India&#039;s environmental science and conservation news</description>
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					<title>Sankar and his community dig canals to save Muthupet&#8217;s mangroves</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/sankar-and-his-community-dig-canals-to-save-muthupets-mangroves/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/sankar-and-his-community-dig-canals-to-save-muthupets-mangroves/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Oct 2020 13:43:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ankita Sengupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Aditi Tandon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/10/20162045/Mongabay_Wetlands_Illustration_Web-1200-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=11893</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Eco Hope and Wetland Champions]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Tamil Nadu]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Community based conservation, Mangroves, Positive Environmental, Rivers, and Salinisation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sankar grew up listening to stories of rain. For in Muthupet, where the 54-year-old’s family has been residing for about 250 years, it was the rainfall which nourished an extensive mangrove forest. Over the last 20 years, however, as the rainfall pattern changed, so did the biodiversity of the area. Muthupet or Muthupettai, located in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sankar grew up listening to stories of rain. For in Muthupet, where the 54-year-old’s family has been residing for about 250 years, it was the rainfall which nourished an extensive mangrove forest. Over the last 20 years, however, as the rainfall pattern changed, so did the biodiversity of the area. Muthupet or Muthupettai, located in Thiruvarur district in Tamil Nadu, used to receive copious amounts of rainfall stretched across seven months. This resulted in the inflow of freshwater into the mangrove forests through fishing canals. Mangroves are salt-tolerant species and they depend on a delicate balance of fresh and seawater. In the last two decades, as the quantity of fresh water flowing into these canals dwindled, owing to scarce rainfall; the salinity levels in the region increased. As the salinity levels rose, some mangrove species with greater sensitivity to soil salinity began to die out. This in turn affected communities that depended on the mangroves for their livelihood &#8211; communities that included Sankar’s family. Mangroves depend on a delicate balance of fresh and sea water. Muthupet&#8217;s mangroves have seen a decline due to changes in rainfall patterns. (L) Photo by L. Shyamal/Wikimedia Commons and (R) Map made with Datawrapper. “I have heard from my father and grandfather how we used to receive heavy rainfall three times a year between July and September. They would use the Tamil proverb matham mummarri pozhigiradhu to describe it,” says Sankar, who goes by one name. The proverb literally translates to three months of heavy&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/sankar-and-his-community-dig-canals-to-save-muthupets-mangroves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/10/sankar-and-his-community-dig-canals-to-save-muthupets-mangroves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Salt-tolerant rice, innovations help farmers deal with salinity in the Sundarbans</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/salt-tolerant-rice-innovations-help-farmers-deal-with-salinity-in-the-sundarbans/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/salt-tolerant-rice-innovations-help-farmers-deal-with-salinity-in-the-sundarbans/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jul 2020 12:47:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2020/07/13131906/P1010225-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=10543</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Conserving Agro-biodiversity and India's Iconic Landscapes]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Sundarbans and West Bengal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, People, Salinisation, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A decade ago, Manirul Saha grew just one crop a year on his small farm in the Sundarbans, the sea-soaked land some hours south of Kolkata. The 40-something sowed rice before the summer monsoon and reaped the harvest at rains&#8217; end. A second crop was always unreliable: As the water evaporated in the post-monsoon months, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A decade ago, Manirul Saha grew just one crop a year on his small farm in the Sundarbans, the sea-soaked land some hours south of Kolkata. The 40-something sowed rice before the summer monsoon and reaped the harvest at rains&#8217; end. A second crop was always unreliable: As the water evaporated in the post-monsoon months, more salt would rise to the surface of this coastal land, making the soil saline and retarding plant growth. Saha had to work as a day labourer to survive. Then, with the help of scientists at the Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI), Saha adopted new farming techniques, including the use of improved salt-tolerant rice varieties and water-saving techniques. That allowed him to expand to a second crop. &#8220;I hardly saved anything before,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Now I&#8217;m saving a lakh [rupees] a year.&#8221; Low-lying coastal regions like the Sundarbans, the mangrove-tipped edge of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta that cradles eastern India and Bangladesh, are under threat from rising seas and more frequent storms, such as the cyclone Amphan that hit the region a few weeks ago. But the climate danger is not just about sudden destruction or gradual submergence. Sea-level rise, storm surge, and coastal erosion also raise the risk of salinity ingress into wells, farms, and ecosystems. Excess salt can make water undrinkable, ruin soil, and hinder germination of seeds. After the monsoon recedes in September and the soil begins to dry, the salt in the land – from groundwater or ingress – begins to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2020/07/salt-tolerant-rice-innovations-help-farmers-deal-with-salinity-in-the-sundarbans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>With Puri’s green shelterbelt destroyed, human-animal conflicts could increase</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/with-puris-green-shelterbelt-destroyed-human-animal-conflicts-could-increase/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/with-puris-green-shelterbelt-destroyed-human-animal-conflicts-could-increase/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Jul 2019 11:45:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shweta Thakur Nanda]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
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					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=6000</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Flood and drought]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Odisha]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Deforestation, People, Reserved Forest, and Salinisation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At 60, Bairagi Patra does not need a book or a white paper to understand the value of the environment. Patra, a marginal farmer and daily wage earner, who lives near the Balukhanda reserve forest in Odisha’s Puri district, is scared. The after effects of Cyclone Fani, which destroyed the district and the forest in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At 60, Bairagi Patra does not need a book or a white paper to understand the value of the environment. Patra, a marginal farmer and daily wage earner, who lives near the Balukhanda reserve forest in Odisha’s Puri district, is scared. The after effects of Cyclone Fani, which destroyed the district and the forest in the region, are now impacting his daily life. With the green shelter belt gone, the houses in the area where he resides have been, in the last two months, getting warmer. Life has also been affected by the constant sea winds and regular conflict with wild animals. And once the monsoon sets in, the situation, they believe, will become even worse. “The cyclone took away many of our belongings. Our homes, cows, goats, crops and trees have all gone. It will take us years to get back to a normal life. I have seen cyclones in the past, but this one ravaged the barrier of trees and shrubs that provided us protection from the wind and storm, and now I am scared for more reasons than one,” said Patra in his native Odia language. He wore a dull, peach coloured gamchha (thin cotton towel) and a gray lungi reflecting his foggy state-of-mind. Standing in his backyard, which is now nothing but a heap of broken trees, branches and trash, Patra pointed to the destroyed Balukhanda forest that had worked as a shield between human habitation and the Bay of Bengal. Bairagi Patra in his backyard.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/07/with-puris-green-shelterbelt-destroyed-human-animal-conflicts-could-increase/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
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					<title>Fixing agriculture a decade after cyclone Aila: A farmer recollects</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/05/fixing-agriculture-a-decade-after-cyclone-aila-a-farmer-recollects/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2019/05/fixing-agriculture-a-decade-after-cyclone-aila-a-farmer-recollects/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2019 11:03:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sahana Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sahana]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[agriculture]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[climate change]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[coast]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2019/05/02230402/SunderbanRiceField-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=5081</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Flood and drought]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Sundarbans and West Bengal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Coast, People, Salinisation, and Villages]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[It has been a decade since Cyclone Aila ravaged the Bay of Bengal. But paddy farmer Tapan Mondal, is wary of growing legumes and watermelon in the still-recovering soil of the Sundarbans, which has been much abused by the overuse of chemical fertilisers. When Aila raged through Bengal in May 2009, he and others belonging [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[It has been a decade since Cyclone Aila ravaged the Bay of Bengal. But paddy farmer Tapan Mondal, is wary of growing legumes and watermelon in the still-recovering soil of the Sundarbans, which has been much abused by the overuse of chemical fertilisers. When Aila raged through Bengal in May 2009, he and others belonging to the agrarian community in the low-lying islands of Sundarbans lost all standing crops, overnight, to the tropical cyclone. “We used to grow legumes and watermelons, besides paddy, which were a good source of income, but that too was destroyed after Aila because of salinity rise. Legumes (such as moong) and watermelon could not survive the saline ingress,” rued Mondal. “Even four to five years after the storm, there were no crops.” In the aftermath of Aila, agricultural fields in the Sundarbans lay marooned in salt water as flood waters had gushed in, breaching embankments. For the next few months, water stagnated in the low lying ﬁelds, ratcheting up salinity and rendering farms unproductive. Untimely rains in 2012 further played havoc with production. Much to the consternation of villagers, who had expected these rains to wash the salt out of the soil, the salts that had permeated the soil infact began seeping up due to capillary action and forming coatings on it, wiping off possibilities of an immediate decent harvest. Mondal recalled his lush green paddy fields in Sundarbans&#8217;s Satjelia island turned brownish-black as the crops suffered from this change in soil quality. &#8220;Agriculture became&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2019/05/fixing-agriculture-a-decade-after-cyclone-aila-a-farmer-recollects/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
														</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change impacting fish reproduction in the Sundarbans: Study</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/04/climate-change-impacting-fish-reproduction-in-the-sundarbans-study/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/04/climate-change-impacting-fish-reproduction-in-the-sundarbans-study/?noamp=mobile#comments</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Apr 2018 10:17:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sahana Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2018/04/12100452/Study-site-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=819</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bay of Bengal, Sundarbans, and West Bengal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endemic species, Fish, Mangroves, Oceans, Overfishing, Salinisation, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Some of West Bengal’s most-loved fish may go off the menu, thanks to climate change in the Sundarbans. A team of researchers that is mapping biological sensitivity of certain fish species to climate change report that increasing salinity and temperature in the Sundarbans estuary is messing up their reproductive behaviour and may also likely alter [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Some of West Bengal’s most-loved fish may go off the menu, thanks to climate change in the Sundarbans. A team of researchers that is mapping biological sensitivity of certain fish species to climate change report that increasing salinity and temperature in the Sundarbans estuary is messing up their reproductive behaviour and may also likely alter their abundance, factors that could wipe them out one day, they warn. Spanning 10,000 square km along the coast of India and Bangladesh, the Sundarbans represent the largest expanse of contiguous mangrove forests in the world. This globally significant ecosystem is situated in the Bay of Bengal, within the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers. The Indian Sundarbans archipelago acts as the “nursery” for nearly 90 percent of the aquatic species of eastern coast of India. It is the top producer of fish and prawn, with both districts (South and North- 24 Parganas) combined producing roughly 31 percent of the total inland fish/prawn production of West Bengal, a state iconic for its fish-eating habits. Sundarbans also satiates 15 to 20 percent of the state capital Kolkata’s fish requirement. Observations of drastic decline in numbers of certain species in the last three decades, especially after cyclone Aila ravaged the islands in 2009, spurred fish endocrinologist Suman Bhusan Chakraborty from the University of Calcutta and collaborators from Visva-Bharati University to explore the combined impact of salinity and temperature rise on five ecologically important fish species in the Indian Sundarbans mangrove estuary. Pabda (Ompok pabda), a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2018/04/climate-change-impacting-fish-reproduction-in-the-sundarbans-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
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						<item>
					<title>Bioremediation boost: Sundarbans mangroves shelter arsenic loving, salt tolerant bacteria</title>
					<link>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/02/bioremediation-boost-sundarbans-mangroves-shelter-arsenic-loving-salt-tolerant-bacteria/</link>
					<comments>https://india.mongabay.com/2018/02/bioremediation-boost-sundarbans-mangroves-shelter-arsenic-loving-salt-tolerant-bacteria/?noamp=mobile#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Feb 2018 10:30:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sahana Ghosh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sandhya Sekar]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/30/2018/02/11231912/Sundarbans-mangrove_Anish-Bhattacharyya-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://india.mongabay.com/?p=485</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Bay of Bengal and West Bengal]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiversity, Coast, Mangroves, Oceans, Salinisation, Sundarbans, and Wetlands]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In the Sundarbans, the largest expanse of contiguous mangrove forests in the world, researchers have stumbled upon two bacterial species in the soil clinging to roots of the Goran tree. These species can thrive in the salt-stressed mangrove soil, and also trap and reduce arsenic uptake by plants, such as paddy, in these conditions. Moreover, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In the Sundarbans, the largest expanse of contiguous mangrove forests in the world, researchers have stumbled upon two bacterial species in the soil clinging to roots of the Goran tree. These species can thrive in the salt-stressed mangrove soil, and also trap and reduce arsenic uptake by plants, such as paddy, in these conditions. Moreover, these microbial minions also churn out chemicals that promote plant growth in these high salt environments. Letting these arsenic-loving microbes loose in soil could become an effective bioremediation strategy to combat arsenic contamination and salt stress in areas embattled with loss of soil productivity, say researchers in a new study. Goran (Ceriops decandra) is a near-threatened, salt-tolerant species which grows as a small tree or shrub and is highly valued as firewood. Digging around in the plant’s rhizosphere – the micro-ecological zone in direct contact with plant roots – Bose Institute’s Abhrajyoti Ghosh and colleagues isolated the arsenic-tolerant strains Kocuria flava and Bacillus vietnamensis, that could potentially remedy dietary arsenic exposure. “The major health hazards associated with intake of arsenic and its expensive remediation cost necessitates the development of cost-effective technologies to restore the polluted agricultural land. Among the various cost-effective technologies, microbe-assisted bioremediation has attracted immense attention in recent years,” said Ghosh, of the department of biochemistry, Bose Institute and lead researcher of the study. When either of the strains was applied on rice seedlings as inoculants, the researchers discovered that it “protected the plants significantly from the toxic effects of arsenic and salt stress,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://india.mongabay.com/2018/02/bioremediation-boost-sundarbans-mangroves-shelter-arsenic-loving-salt-tolerant-bacteria/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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