NEW DELHI: Love mangoes? If your answer is yes, now there is altogether a new ‘green’ reason to love this pulpy sweet delight as a study shows that mango orchards can help in fighting climate change.
A study by scientists of the Indian Council for Agriculture Research (ICAR) found that mango orchards in the country have sequestrated (removed) 2.85 lakh tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere.
The study by Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, under ICAR, estimated the carbon stocks in cultivated mango orchards in India using an exclusive method developed for estimation of tree biomass of grafted mangoes. “The country as a whole has sequestered 285.005 mt of carbon in its mango orchards. This is, however, very low compared to polyembrionic mango trees grown from seeds in the wild,” said the study published in the latest issue of Current Science Journal.
The researchers said that the mangoes in India have mostly occupied degraded lands and recommended that such land be brought under mango cultivation. The study advocated that degraded lands, where forests have disappeared, maybe brought under mango cultivation, as the orchards, which reasonably imitate forests, and sequester carbon in similar quantities and can mitigate climate-change risks.