Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.7
Epicenter of tsunami and location of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (Source: www.
aboriginalastronomy.com)
150,000 ha of new mangrove area loss per year. This translates to around 225,000 t
of carbon sequestration potential lost each year with an additional release of ap-
proximately 11 million t of carbon from disturbed mangrove soils each year.
5 Impact of Extreme Event of Tsunami on the Mangroves of
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI), India—A Case Study
The natural extreme event, i.e. the earthquake of 9.1 on the Richter scale, which
struck ANI on December 26, 2004 (Fig.
2.7
) and the subsequent tsunami have
brought about devastating human tragedy and considerable loss to the ecological
resources, including mangroves in these islands. Immediate impact of tsunami on
mangroves was not very significant in Andaman group of islands but in Nicobar
there had been considerable loss of forest cover, including mangroves as was evident
from a few remote sensing-based studies which were carried out immediately after
tsunami. These studies were mostly a rapid assessment in nature and without suffi-
cient ground verification. FSI's rapid assessment (
2006
) showed that there was a loss
of 258 ha of forest cover (inclusive of mangrove cover) in Andaman group of islands
while the loss was 12,482 ha in Nicobar group of islands. Chatterjee et al. (
2008
)
studied changes in land cover and land use only in South Andaman and reported
