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An ecological-economic study by the Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bengaluru, has put the total economic value of the Pichavaram mangrove forest at Rs 2,485.38 crore.
That works out to about Rs 1.83 crore per hectare across the 1,478.64 hectares of the wetland.
Carbon alone - vegetation plus soil - accounts for Rs 1,612.40 crore of the total, making blue carbon the single largest component.
Pichavaram lies in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, between the Vellar estuary to the north and the Coleroon (Kollidam) estuary to the south.
It was designated Ramsar Site No. 2482 in April 2022 and is listed as an Important Bird Area on the Central Asian Flyway.
TEV is the sum of the use and non-use benefits an ecosystem provides: direct use values such as fisheries and tourism, indirect use values such as coastal protection and carbon storage, and non-use values such as biodiversity conservation. Putting a rupee figure on a mangrove is not an argument for selling it - it is an argument against the default assumption that an undeveloped wetland is worth nothing when it is weighed against a port, a shrimp farm or a housing project. 'Blue carbon' is the carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems - mangroves, seagrass meadows and salt marshes. Its distinguishing feature is that most of it is not in the trees but in waterlogged sediment, where the absence of oxygen slows decomposition and locks carbon away for centuries.
Simple Analogy: A mangrove is less a forest than a bank vault with trees on the roof - Pichavaram keeps over three-quarters of its carbon underground, in the mud.
Pichavaram sits on the Coromandel Coast in Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, inside the Vellar-Coleroon estuarine complex. Freshwater from the Vellar, Coleroon and Uppanar rivers meets the tides of the Bay of Bengal here. An offshore sandy barrier spit cut off the inner lagoon, creating the calm brackish water in which the mangroves took hold, and the system communicates with the open sea through a narrow channel via the Killai backwaters.
The Convention on Wetlands, adopted at Ramsar, Iran in 1971; Pichavaram is Site No. 2482, designated April 2022.
One of the world's major migratory bird routes; Pichavaram is a listed stopover for pelicans, spoonbills and flamingos.
Pichavaram's mangrove belt buffered the surge for villages behind it, one of the most cited Indian examples of natural coastal defence.
Mangrove soil carbon is central to coastal carbon accounting and to India's commitment to create an additional carbon sink.
GS Paper 3 > Environment > Conservation, ecosystem services and wetlands; GS Paper 1 > Geography > Coastal landforms
General Awareness > Environment and Indian Geography
General Awareness > Environment
What is blue carbon?
Answer: Carbon captured by oceans and coastal ecosystems
Consider the following pairs: Wetland/Lake : Location 1. Hokera Wetland : Punjab 2. Renuka Wetland : Himachal Pradesh 3. Rudrasagar Lake : Tripura 4. Sasthamkotta Lake : Tamil Nadu How many pairs given above are correctly matched?
Answer: Only two pairs
The sum of direct use, indirect use and non-use values that an ecosystem provides.
Carbon captured and stored by coastal and marine ecosystems such as mangroves, seagrasses and salt marshes, mostly in waterlogged sediment.
Aerial breathing roots, seen in Avicennia marina, that let mangroves take in oxygen from waterlogged soil.
A site identified by BirdLife International as globally significant for bird conservation.