THATTA, Aug 1: Last year’s flood brought miseries and devastation for the people belonging to seven coastal talukas of Thatta district but it brought about some positive environmental changes nevertheless.

The flood water lowered hyper salinity graph, prepared land for paddy bumper crop in some areas, increased fishing activity and caused receding of sea waters in Thatta coastline, Dawn has learnt here on Monday.

People of the villages of Haji Umer Jatt, Yaqoob Temero, Hanif Temero and Punhoon Jatt told a team of reporters that the flood left mud layers on their agricultural fields and revitalized it. Environmentalist Nawaz Kumbhar accompanied the team.

They said mud had also built up a slight obstruction line restraining the violent sea blocking its gushing process into the land.

The villagers said sea water had considerably descended along the villages of Yaqoob Thahim, Haji Doongar Jatt, Hussain Thamour and other sites; it is evident that the oceanic waters has been stopped from gushing upward.

Mohammad Shafi Margar, who is a social worker, an environmentalist and chairman of the Delta Development Organisation, told the team that islands of Khary wari, Darsi, Mirwari, Babeho, Bublo benefited a lot from the flood.

He said that usually during the drought, people herded their cattle to the hilly terrain range of Khirthar for grazing, but exceptionally after floods, the cattle were brought to islands for grazing.

After the flood islands had widely grown a local variety of grass which had added beauty to the landscape and provided fodder for the cattle head, he said.

He said that the post-flood situation had attracted birds like pelican to the delta. These birds always arrive on the arrival of sweet water.

He said the descending of hyper salinity graph was evident from the land throughout union councils of Begna, Kothi, Kharochhan, Karmalak, Gul Mohammad Baran and Jati where barren lands had become fertile and produced bumper crops of paddy.

Many octogenarians who had witnessed catastrophes, including floods and cyclones namely Yaqoob Temro, Lano Samejo, Mubarak Mallah, Misri Khan and Haji Ahmed Jatt revealed that this recent flood had widely benefited the shrinking mangrove forests the natural hatcheries of fish and shrimps.

They said that from October to February, the fish and shrimp widely developed at the deltaic creeks and deep sea and the fishermen got benefited from them.

This time due to the flood the specie of Palla fish is widely hunted downstream Kotri.

Old people said that the flood had brought socio-political changes in the deltaic areas.