From one plant to 2,000: Saving Kannur’s rare mangrove

For more than four decades, fisherman and mangrove conservationist Parayil Rajan, popularly known as Kandal Rajan, has worked to protect Kannur’s mangrove ecosystems. His latest mission is to save a rare mangrove variety, locally known as Kannampotti (Excoecaria agallocha). It he fears could disappear from the district’s tidal landscape.

Mr. Rajan has been collecting seeds from scattered locations and raising them in a nursery attached to his home at Thavam. He says the variety is now identified only in a handful of locations in the Kannur region and that his nursery has produced more than 2,000 seedlings.