Scientists begin documenting plant life in Chilka8217;s waters

Bhubaneswar, DEC 26: For the first time, it might be possible for us to know the diversity of plant life in Chilka, Asia's largest brackis...

Bhubaneswar, DEC 26: For the first time, it might be possible for us to know the diversity of plant life in Chilka, Asia8217;s largest brackish water lake, if the first-ever monographic documentation of the lake carried out by a band of scientists of the state is successful. Although the fauna in Chilka lake is well-documented by the Zoological Society of India, nobody till date has done the same thing for the plants barring an odd paper or two on the subject in the 1930s by Kalipada Biswas and botanist Dr Pranakrishna Parija.

But the two-year exhaustive documentation work supported by Chilka Development Authority CDA, a government body, might change our ideas about the plant life inside the lake. The team comprises Dr S P Adhikary, professor of botany in Utkal University, CDA chief executive officer Dr Ajit Patnaik, renowned cytogeneticist Dr SN Patnaik and scientist in the Regional Plant Resources Centre RPRC, Bhubaneswar, Pratap Panda.

Say Dr Adhikary and Dr Patnaik : 8220;Whatever data we have onChilka8217;s plant life is old and archaic. There is no reliable data and nothing with us to change in the lake. How do we ascertain whether the saline level in the lake will remain constant or is it turning into a freshwater lake. And there is no good indicator than the plants about the change of ecology.8221;

But what does the team hope to find? 8220;We don8217;t expect the fauna to be that diverse. The aquatic plant varieties could be somewhere between 10-15, algae another 10 and over 100 microscopic plants. But the varieties of plants in the hillocks could be over a thousand,8221; said Dr Adhikari.

The four-member team supported by a CDA team of botanists, taxonomists, geologists and engineers has been visiting the lake since August for field data collection. The team has so far made six visits to the lake and brought back plant specimens with them. After the plants/algae are brought to the lab, the identification is done through various botanical methods and the findings recorded.

Dr S N Patnaik, cytogeneticist andone of the team members, said that the team would extensively survey the plant life in the lake as well as those surviving in the 25-odd hillocks inside the lake in the next one and half year. 8220;All the plants inside the lake are not necessarily aquatic plants. There are plants, small and big, on the hillocks Honeymoon Island, Bird8217;s Island, Breakfast Island, Chadheiguha. Many botanists do not take pains to go to the hillocks and survey the plants. During our survey we will go to each of these hillocks, stay there and study each of these plants,8221; Patnaik said.

The team will also survey the increase in number of many freshwater plants like Azolla, Typha and Hydrilla in the lake. 8220;The plant-animal equation in the esturine lake has started changing as the presence of these freshwater plants show. This would also affect the annual visit of the birds and the character of the animal life in the lake,8221; Dr Adhikary said.

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Besides documenting the the fauna of the lake, the team will look for more areas wherethe algae Gracileria Verrucosa can be found. Gracileria, which is mainly found in the Kalijai-Pathara region of the lake could give a good amount of agar agar, say scientists. 8220;If we are able to find more areas where there is more presence of the algae, we don8217;t have to export it from Japan. The quantity could be as much as 10-15 tonnes,8221; the scientists said.

But more than Gracileria, the team is joyous over the discovery of Enteromorpha, a variety of seaweed that is known to kill the mosquito larvae. It could also be a good insecticide, the scientists say.