Homestead Plant Diversity at the Ship Breaking Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Unplanned ship breaking at the Sitakund coast in Chittagong, Bangladesh is contaminating the surrounding vegetation mainly through the discharge of heavy metals from the discarded ship paints. Therefore, the present study was conducted with an aim to explore homestead plant diversity in ship breaking areas at Sitakunda sub-district in Bangladesh from where Salimpur and Kumira union was selected as ship breaking areas (SBA) whereas Bansbaria and Barabkunda as non-ship breaking areas (NSBA). In total 104 households were surveyed to ascertain plant diversity. Present study revealed that NSBA have more plant diversity than SBA. A total of 27 tree species including fruits, timber, fuel wood, aesthetics and medicinal were found in SBA while 30 species were found in NSBA. Shanon Winner index value was 2.5 in SBA whereas in NSBA it was 2.7. Agro-crop diversity in both areas was almost same. A total 15 agro-crop species were found in SBA and 16 species in NSBA. Average production of rice in SBA (2251.91 kg/yr/household) was quite higher compared to the NSBA (380.2 kg/yr/household). This study prioritizes the importance of soil properties analysis at the ship breaking areas and links it with the growth of plant vegetation to check if there is any significant relationship between them. Moreover, it is also very crucial to investigate the heavy metal concentration in plant including agro-crop and forest crop growing around this area. Based on findings from the analysis of soil properties and heavy metal concentration in soil and plant, farmers can be prescribed to plant site specific species for more production and sustainable homestead forest management at the ship breaking areas of Bangladesh.