Myanmar to regrow mangrove in cyclone-hit area

YANGON, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will regrow 50,000 acres (20,250 hectares) of mangrove in Meinmahlagyun village, the country's Ayeyawaddy division, to resist cyclone attack in the future, the local weekly 7-Day reported Wednesday.

Meinmahlagyun had about 100,000 acres (40,500 hectares) of mangrove before being hit by a severe cyclone in early May, of which 30 percent were destroyed during the disaster, the report said.

Other reports also said that no one was killed in the Meinmahlagyun village in the division's Bogalay exceptionally.

Myanmar has stressed the preservation of mangrove to mitigate the impact of cyclone storm, calling on people to regrow the plantation after disaster.

Despite destruction of some mangrove in the delta region duringthe May cyclone storm, it had been able to prevent some villages from inflicting casualties, said other local media, citing donors, who visited a village called Thantheik in Dedaye township in the same division, as saying that although the 1,300-population village lies at a point where rivers meet, no one died in the cyclone.

The mangrove had been able to bring down the speed of the tidal wave, enabling villagers there to escape from deaths, it said.

Deadly tropical cyclone Nargis, which occurred over the Bay of Bengal, hit five divisions and states on last May 2 and 3, of which Ayeyawaddy and Yangon inflicted the heaviest casualties and massive infrastructural damage.

The storm has killed 84,537 people and left 53,836 others missing and 19,359 injured, according to the latest official-released death toll.