The terrible tsunami that struck the Indian ocean Nations on that deadly night of December 6 2004,would have devastated the low lying islands (one to one and half meters above sea level) of the beautiful archipelago if there were not enough mangroves to protect them.

Maldivian islands are not home for huge sky scrapping trees. The biggest trees you will find here are Bread fruit trees, Bunyan trees, etc. Most of the vegetation here is the protective angels like mangroves.

The tiny islands which are covered by a profuse amounts of mangroves are not only protected from deadly tsunamis but also retain their shapes against the oncoming high waves. The islands with scarce vegetation, take the beating of the waves and change their area as well as shape, season after season.

Even though the mangroves are the life lines of these tiny pearls of the Indian ocean, the present generation, under the guise of modernization and profit mongering, has already done an irreparable damage to this natural fortress.

There is another interesting relationship between the islanders and the mangrove trees in these islands. A few decades ago, when there used to be famine, the feeble lives of the islanders hung precariously on the leaves and pods of these mangroves. They have a bitter taste and some contain small amount of poisonous content too. But the lives of the people depended on those produces and hence they invented an indigenous process to make it edible. In those days when nothing came from the outer world for months together and the sea turned merciless, these mangroves were the last resort.

Thank you for reading.
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