He’s mangroves’ best friend

It’s a sultry summer evening, but when Arvind Untawale ushers us into his humble home at Dona Paula, the genial atmosphere that pervades the living room is instantly relaxing. The 76-year-old then darts to the kitchen to fetch some water. As he carefully places the glasses on the coffee table, one would scant imagine that those very hands created one global and three national patents on seaweed production, wrote 125 papers on mangroves and their conservation, and were instrumental in developing what is now popular as the Salim Ali bird sanctuary at Chorao.
Just like the mangroves he strives to protect, Untawale has grown from strength to strength while remaining firmly rooted in his objectives.But, contrary to what one might think, he hadn’t quite charted his course towards this end. In fact, had he not been goaded by his mother to attend college, he would most probably have continued being an electrician in Madhya Pradesh.
The Deori native recounts how he passed higher secondary school by the skin of his teeth and subsequently enrolled for an electrician's course at Bilaspur's Industrial Training Institute (ITI), just to avoid joining his brother in tending the family's fields. He seemed content taking up minor wiring assignments until his mother pushed him to pursue a Bachelor's degree. His father, a retired doctor, had passed away by then.
From there on, there was no looking back for Untawale. He topped in botany and zoology in the final examinations, and with a BSc in hand, joined the Nagpur University to pursue his Masters in botany. Here too, he fared brilliantly, not only obtaining first division, but also ranking second in merit. Soon enough, he was bestowed the government Dakshina Fellowship, which he used to obtain his PhD in 1970.
It was the eminent Pune University professor, T S Mahabale, who, impressed by Untawale’s work during a visit to Nagpur, recommended to the National Institute of Oceanography’s (NIO) founder director, N K Pannikar, that the young man be part of the prestigious research organization. He was offered the role of a junior research fellow and 500 as salary.
“I accepted (the offer) and landed in Goa,” Untawale says, recalling that he began by researching sand dunes and marine algae extensively.
But, it took another illustrious visitor to help the young scientist find his true calling. This time around, it was the director general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Yelavarthy Nayudamma. “Why don’t you work on mangroves?” he asked Untawale, a suggestion that ultimately turned the unwitting man’s life around.
“My life began there,” asserts Untawale, who went on to present 125 papers on mangroves and their conservation and visited 22 countries, including Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and South Africa, to research this unique vegetation system. He even worked towards the development of the Malvan marine sanctuary in a bid to protect mangroves and a host of fauna from human invasion.
That wasn't all. The botanist also developed one international and three national patents on seaweed production. A seaweed liquid fertilizer that he helped create was eventually sold to an Ahmedabad-based company and still sells like hotcakes under the brand name ‘Planto Zyme’.
It was only a matter of time until then Goa chief minister Pratapsingh Rane requested him to “do something for Goa”. “So, I took a boat ride to the beautiful island of Chorao, identified an area for conservation, and presented my findings to the government. The state then acquired 250 acres of the island and set aside around 50 acres for aquaculture. The rest now stands as the Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary,” Untawale smiles, belying the tremendous work he put in for the cause.
Although he retired from the NIO in 2000, Untawale has been busier than ever, since. Holding the post of executive secretary of the Mangrove Society of India means that work on conservation of halophytes takes up almost all of his waking hours. “My daughter, Priya, keeps telling me that I am busier in retirement than I was during my stint at the NIO. She is right,” he quips. Untawale’s banker son, Ashish, resides in Pune. The septuagenarian’s wife, Vijaya, succumbed to cancer in 1989.
Untawale is presently working on a proposal to set up a mangrove park at Patto, Panaji. “I have travelled to various destinations within India and abroad, but never have I seen a mangrove swamp so close to city limits as I have seen in Patto,” Untawale points out as he explains his vision for the conservation of the area. “There are seven stakeholders involved and the idea is to keep the zone open for tourists and nature lovers, allowing them to revel in the lap of nature while making them understand why it is so important to protect this vital vegetation system,” he concludes.