PATHANAMTHITTA: A study conducted on the benthic fauna (animals living on the bottom of a water body) of the Achencoil river shows that sand-mining over the past few decades has caused notable changes in the eco-biology of benthic communities in the river, D. Padmalal, a senior scientist attached to the Centre for Earth Science Studies, has said.
Dr. Padmalal was making a presentation at the consultative workshop on ‘Biodiversity of River Pampa' at Environmental Resource Centre of the Pampa Parirakshana Samiti at Poovathoor near Aranmula on Sunday.
The workshop was jointly organised by Kerala State Bio-Diversity Board and the Post-Graduate and Research Department of Zoology at NSS Hindu College, Changanacherry.
Dr. Padmalal said the impact was not restricted to the aquatic environment alone but may extend even to the terrestrial environment. Insects like May fly, Dragon fly, Chironomids, Caddis fly and other insects of the order Diptera were declining fast due to indiscriminate mining of sand from river basins and related aquatic environments.
According to him, it is a fact that the initial life history of these organisms begins in aquatic environments. Scooping of sand, along with the larval forms of aquatic animals, could adversely affect the population of beneficial fauna in the system that formed food to higher order animals like fish and amphibians, he added.
Riparian vegetation was an integral environmental component of river ecosystems as it played an important role in maintaining the river health, stabilising riverbanks, providing habitat for wild life, storing carbon and thereby regulating the level of green house gases in the atmosphere, he added.
Inaugurating the workshop, Kuriakose Mar Cleemis, Metropolitan of Thumpamon diocese of Malankara Orthodox Church, said a people's participatory conservation strategy was needed for the effective conservation of Pampa.
K.V. Sambadevan, retired Divisional Forest Officer, N. Unnikrishnan of Kottayam Nature Society, C.P. Robert, programme coordinator of Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Thelliyoor, K.N.P. Kurup, programme coordinator of People's Biodiversiry, P.S. Gopakumar of post-graduate and research department of Zoology at NSS Hindu College, Changanacherry and N.K. Sukumaran Nair, PPS general secretary, also addressed the workshop.
Source:The Hindu,20-9-2010
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