IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science (IOSR-JAVS) e-ISSN: 2319-2380, p-ISSN: 2319-2372. Volume 3, Issue 4 (May. - Jun. 2013), PP 07-15 www.iosrjournals.org Status of coastal plantations and its impact on land stabilization, soil P H and salinity at Nolchira range of Hatiya Island, Bangladesh M. Main Uddin * , M. Kamal Hossain Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong. Chittagong 4331, Bangladesh * Correspondence to: M. Main Uddin, email: main@ifescu.ac.bd Abstract: The study was conducted to explore the status of coastal plantations, land accretion, erosion and stabilization at Nolchira Range of Hatiya Upa-zila of Noakhali district, Bangladesh. Among four beats of Nolchira coastal Range, Ochkhali and Dalchar beats were selected. Sample plots of 20m×20m (400m 2 ) were taken randomly for mangrove plantation. For highway, embankment and feeder road plantations, 50m long strips were selected for the vegetation sampling. In Nolchira forest range of Hatiya Island about 14370.73 ha of newly accreted land was planted by Sonneratia apetala of which 12450.62 ha was stabilized during the period of 1967 to 2007 under Coastal Afforestation Project (CAP), Mangrove Afforestation Project (MAP), 2 nd Forestry Project, Forest Resource Management Project (FRMP) and Revenue projects in Nolchira range. The rest 1920.11 ha was eroded by river and wave action. 27 years old Sonneratia apetala attained 21 cm dbh and 16.5 m height growth in Ochkhali beat, whereas 27 years old Sonneratia apetala attained 24.5 cm dbh and 18.5 m height growth in Dalchar beat. Whereas, 27 years old Albizia saman attained 54 cm dbh in Ochkhali highway plantations, 40 cm in 14 years old embankment and 16.4 cm in 12 years old feeder road plantations respectively. Similarly, Acacia auriculiformis attained the dbh of 37 cm, 19.6 cm and 10.5 cm respectively for the same site. Whereas, Casuarina equisetifolia attained the dbh of 17 cm, 13.5 cm and 12.5 cm respectively in the same site. The soil P H and salinity showed lower in old coastal plantation in comparison to uri-grass land and newly accreted char lands. Among 12450.62 ha of stabilized coastal lands, 795 ha mature forest land was already converted into agricultural land. The stabilized coastal plantations protected the coastal environment of Hatiya Island from the severe loss and damage of coastal lives and properties due to the catastrophic effect of super cyclone SIDR in November 2007. Keywords- coastal plantations, coastal environment, mangrove, land stabilization, soil P H and salinity. I. Introduction Bangladesh is a pioneer country with regard to coastal planting among the South East Asian countries (Siddiqi, 2001). Being exposed to the direct wind and wave action, the coastal environment is highly unstable. Moreover, the life and properties of the coastal plantation is always at risk (Saenger and Siddiqi, 1993). However, the newly accreted lands are mostly unsuitable for any land practices except afforestation because of a number of unpredictable geo-morphological changes, viz. rapid accretion, sand smoothening, sediment winnowing and rapid siltation or sandune movements (Das and Siddiqi, 1985). The primary pneumataphore of coastal species spread up laterally and persist within the silt layer for a longer time which also hasten the procedure of depositing and fixing silts, and thus helps in stabilization of lands (Siddiqi, 2001). It is believed that a permanent green belt along the shoreline and near the shore and offshore islands would considerably reduce the losses incurred from the frequent cyclones and tidal surges, increase forest resources and provide ecological security to the coastal area as a whole. With this in view, establishment of massive mangrove plantation program was a concept in the forestry practices. Except mangroves in the natural Sundarbans, the long shoreline of the country was without tree cover till the beginning of the regular mangrove afforestation program in 1966 (Haque, 1984). Till now, an area of about 170,000 hectares has been planted with mangrove species under the coastal afforestation divisions of Chittagong, Noakhali, Barisal and Patuakhali (Hossain et el, 2008). Land accretion in the coastal areas was going on since time immemorial but due to the absence of successful practices the ultimate gain in landmass stabilization is not significant. The Ganges, the Brahmaputra and Meghna are flowing through Bangladesh and on its way to the Bay of Bengal, these rivers carries an estimated load of 2.4 billion tons of sediments (Siddiqi, 2002). These sediments are subjected to coastal dynamic processes generated mainly by river flow, tidal and wind action, leading accretion and erosion without the development of deep rooted vegetation, where new formations remain unstable and surface erosion is a continuous phenomenon (Haque, 1984). Protection in certain areas of new coastal formation have been attempted through coastal afforestation programs. Afforestation in the new accreted land not only helps in the retention of deposited soil particle, but also hastens the process of raising the land above the tide level (Hasan, 1987). Through the afforestation project, the incoming silt load intercepted by existing stems, twigs, roofs and www.iosrjournals.org 1 | Page