Q.Very soon our country will be the world's highest populous country. This alarming rise in population forces us to find new areas for food production. CMFRI suggested the conversion of mangrove forests into aquacultural areas. If so, what will be the environmental and health problems we will be facing ?

Turning mangrove forests into aquaculture ponds sacrifices a vital coastal ecosystem, causing serious environmental and public-health problems.

Mangroves act as a natural buffer that stabilises the coastline, reduces the force of storm surges and cyclones, and provides critical breeding and nursery habitat for fish, shrimp and other marine organisms — so converting them to ponds removes this protection, increases coastal erosion and flood vulnerability, and reduces the wild fish stocks that mangroves normally support. The intensive aquaculture that replaces mangroves also discharges nutrient- and chemical-rich effluents into surrounding waters, degrading water quality and encouraging the spread of waterborne diseases, while altered salinity from pond seepage can damage nearby agricultural land and freshwater sources used by local communities. These combined ecological and health costs are w …