Smile of Golestan National Park and Gorgan Bay to life

Gorgan Bay and Golestan National Park 2 endangered species in Golestan, one due to water shortage and the other due to overhunting, encroachment and lack of sufficient water resources for the living are always threatened, but the implementation of some projects in recent years hope to survive Has increased them. Some of the problems that these important and international environmental areas of Golestan are facing are beyond the capacity of the province and its solution requires planning at the national level and allocation of credit in addition to the provincial budget. .

One of the reasons for the need to pay attention to Gorgan Bay and Golestan National Park is the role and importance of these areas in the lives of living beings, preserving the environmental cycle and the impact of their activities on the conservation of biological species, especially rare and endangered species.

As a result of this importance and impact, in recent years, important measures have been taken to solve the problem or reduce the shortcomings of these important areas with global capabilities of Golestan, although there is a long way to go to reach the desired point.

Gorgan Bay is one of the largest reservoirs of fresh water connected to the Caspian Sea, which with its economic and ecological function is important in the reproduction of aquatic, bony and cartilaginous fish, attracting migratory birds and maintaining the life cycle of the Caspian Sea and affect the livelihood of local communities. Direct and plays an important role.

Increasing the level and volume of water in this water area in recent decades has led to the prosperity and operation of ports including Gaz and Turkmen in Golestan, and these areas for years to become a place of communication with the Caspian littoral states.

The decrease in the water level of this bay for various reasons, such as the decrease of river discharge and the closure of water supply canals of the Caspian Sea, in addition to the prosperity of Gaz and Turkmen ports, significant decrease in population of surrounding cities and migration of residents to surrounding cities, Its parts became the center of the dust phenomenon and the future of the green province of Golestan was seriously threatened.

Some of these problems have arisen over the past decades and the accumulation of expectations and desires of the people of Golestan to solve it, needed more time, careful study and expert solutions, which with the efforts of the government over the past eight years, some projects related to The revitalization of this blue zone began and reached a promising end.

One of the serious damages to Gorgan Bay was the closure of the water transfer route through the Caspian Sea water supply canals. It was for agriculture and evaporation.

The director of the Atmospheric Sciences Research Institute of the National Institute of Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences said: “Some people consider the lack of work in the role of Golestan dams as one of the factors facing the drought in Gorgan Bay, while this statement has no expert basis.”

Parvin Ghaffarian stated: The only Golestan dam that leads to the Gorgan Bay catchment area is the Nomel Dam, which has a capacity of only seven million cubic meters, while Gorgan Bay needs at least one billion cubic meters of water to rehabilitate and save it from drought.

According to him, temperature also plays an important role in reducing the water level of the Caspian Sea and the drying up of Gorgan Bay, so that we see an annual increase of 2% of the maximum temperature in the region, and this shows that the trend is not random but due to some factors such as Urbanization and much of it is due to climate change.

The expert of the Caspian Sea Oceanography Center also considered sedimentation as another challenge facing Gorgan Bay and said: if we consider the discharge of rivers leading to Gorgan Bay as 150 mg, 100,000 tons of sediment annually through Gorgan River and about 40,000 tons It enters Gorgan Bay through Qarahsoo river, which will be higher during heavy rains and floods.

Smile of Golestan National Park and Gorgan Bay to life
The depletion of Gorgan Bay water has also made tourism activities in Turkmen port difficult
For one centimeter decrease in the water level of the Caspian Sea, about one square kilometer of the area of ​​Gorgan Bay has decreased and with the increasing increase of global warming and climate change and as a result of decreasing sea level, the need for continuous monitoring of the Caspian Sea and Gorgan Bay Becomes.

The former Deputy Governor of Golestan for Coordination of Civil Affairs also said: Gorgan Bay is drying up and this, in addition to quantity, has also affected water quality and has created many problems for birds and aquatic animals.

Mir Mohammad Gharavi added: “In the last two years, about 50,000 migratory birds have died due to botulism in the Gulf, and if there is no solution for the water area, it will have irreparable effects.”

He also referred to the entry of municipal and industrial wastewater into the Gulf and said: “Industrial treatment plants should be established and the entry of wastewater into the Gulf should be prevented. کردن.

Experts point to climate change and global warming, uncontrolled abstraction of aquifers around the bay, reduced rainfall and increased evaporation as the most important reasons for the drying up of Gorgan Bay.

Closing the mouth of Gorgan Bay causes this water area to dry quickly because the rate of evaporation is twice as much as the amount of rainfall and the inflow of rivers entering Gorgan Bay is not enough even in natural conditions to compensate for its water shortage. .

One of the proposed solutions for the revitalization of Gorgan Bay is the dredging of water supply canals, which, despite many supporters, has its opponents who consider it useless and want to prevent dredging due to the possibility of damaging the pristine environment of Gorgan Bay. are.

Meanwhile, the governor of Golestan has repeatedly stated that the dredging of the water supply canals of Gorgan Bay has a scientific basis.

Hadi Haghshenas, referring to the continuation of the Gorgan Bay water retreat and the need to accelerate the executive operation to rehabilitate this area of ​​the Caspian Sea east, said:

He, who has academic and executive experiences related to the sea, coast and port, added: “If no action is taken to revitalize Gorgan Bay, it will suffer the fate of Lake Urmia and the cities around this bay will be affected by dust.”

Accordingly, the revitalization of Gorgan Bay was on the government’s serious agenda, and finally the dredging of the water canals of this water area was approved by the Supreme Council of Wetlands, and hope was revived in the hearts of nature lovers and residents around Gorgan Bay.

The head of the Environment Organization, who visited Golestan on Monday, said: “In recent years, with the reduction of river water inflows, the closure of seawater inflows, as well as the over-harvesting of the share of Miankaleh wetland in the agricultural sector, level and depth Gorgan Bay decreased.

Issa Kalantari pointed to the end of the study of the Caspian Sea water transfer project to Gorgan Bay and said: with the completion of the study of this project, the canals of Gorgan Bay to the sea will be dredged by the end of this year for better use of water resources.

He continued: “If necessary, a pumping station will be built from the sea to Gorgan Bay to eliminate the lack of water flow, especially in winter, which causes the production of botulism toxin and the formation of losses for birds.”

Rehabilitation of Gorgan Bay and increasing its level, in addition to increasing the presence of birds, strengthening aquatic reserves and the prosperity of tourism projects such as Bandar-e-Gaz and Bandar-e-Turkmen piers, reduce the risk of dust and dust flow to Golestan settlements. Will destroy.

Golestan National Park

The 92,000-hectare area of ​​Golestan National Park, in addition to suffering from deficiencies such as low credit and insufficient manpower that almost all areas of the country’s environment are struggling with, has many unique problems, including overhunting. , Fire, rape of some profiteers in the area of ​​this national park by carrying out illegal constructions, permanent loss of wildlife due to collisions with passing vehicles and significant reduction of water and food resources with warming weather and drought.

In recent years, in order to solve some of these problems, more use has been made of the capacity of nature-loving forces, as well as rural residents on the outskirts of this national park, and promising results have been achieved.

In addition, to compensate for the financial shortcomings of this important area, the government has determined an independent budget line for Golestan National Park since 1998, and after that, each year, the required funds for this park were provided to Golestan National Park separately from the provincial credits.

Another important problem of Golestan National Park is the occurrence of widespread fires in this area, which due to the large extent and lack of adequate equipment and manpower, and on the other hand the difficulty of passing some areas, each fire, especially in summer, several hectares of Forests and pastures are burning and destroying this park.

One of the important plans devised to solve this problem is to equip Golestan National Park with fire alarm equipment. Increase.

According to the report of Azari Jahromi, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, with the investment of the Ministry of Communications, the fire alarm warning system and video monitoring to protect Golestan National Park against fire with IoT technology was put into operation by an Iranian startup company.

The Director General of Communications and Information Technology of Golestan also said that the implementation of the pilot warning system of Golestan National Park, which uses new technologies, will reduce the time of notification of the occurrence and spread of fire in high-risk areas of this national park.

The largest fire occurred in Golestan National Park with an area of ​​1,700 hectares in 1389.
Mohammad Ahmadi stated: The purpose of this project is to design, implement, test, deliver and train an integrated GIS system, and in this software system, high-risk points of fire in Golestan National Park are displayed on the map, and in addition to early detection of fire , Notifies the necessary devices at the time of the accident to the relevant devices.

Ahmadi added: “The current equipment in this project covers a small area of ​​Gostan National Park, and to cover all areas of the park, infrastructure facilities must be developed.”

According to him, before the start of the intelligent fire monitoring project, the park had no communication infrastructure, but now advanced equipment has been installed in this area and they can be used in various fields.

More than 500 billion rials have been spent to operate this project and create the required hardware infrastructure and supply and install equipment such as surveillance cameras.

In the same connection, the Vice President and the Head of the Environmental Protection Organization, in an interview with IRNA at the end of his visit to Golestan on Monday, while considering the management of the Board of Trustees of Golestan National Park successful, announced the need to approve the National Parks Board of Trustees Law. “This organization is trying to submit a bill to the parliament in this regard,” he said.

Issa Kalantari added: Golestan National Park is the first national park in the country, which has been managed for three years as a board of trustees consisting of Samans, indigenous people and government officials of Golestan and North Khorasan provinces.

Babian added that the decision-making and decision-making regarding Golestan National Park is with the Steering Council and the implementation of these decisions is with government agents, adding: “During the last three years, with the management of the Board of Trustees, the wildlife population of this park has doubled.”

The head of the Environmental Protection Organization continued: “People have good cooperation with environmentalists in maintaining the Golestan National Park, and the management of the board of trustees of this park can be a model for other national parks in using this management system.”

The head of Golestan National Park also said: “The most important executive plans in the visit of the head of the Environmental Protection Organization to this province on Monday are to participate in the steering council of this park and visit some measures such as construction of 2 guard posts and reconstruction and improvement of five guard buildings and offices in This area was protected.

Mehdi Teymouri added: Golestan National Park has 13 guard stations and four active observation rooms for the use of guards.

He said that updating the vehicle fleet, managing and reducing the conflicts in the middle park of the national park and setting up a visitor center are among the needs of Golestan National Park and said: Many of the needs of this national park will be met.

Teymouri continued: The head of the Environmental Protection Organization also agreed with the opinion of the Governor of Golestan to establish a center or office of research in this protected natural area and the first waste collection vehicle was to be allocated for Golestan National Park.

According to IRNA, Golestan National Park is the largest and oldest national park in the country with an area of ​​91,895 hectares in Galikesh city in the east of Golestan province and west of North Khorasan province, which in 1975 as a biosphere reserve among 50 biosphere reserves. The world was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

A small part of Golestan National Park is located in the territory of Semnan province.

This park has three different types of dry, semi-arid and semi-humid climates, which makes this park have a variety of vegetation from arid steppes to dense forests.

The animal species of this park include deer, leopard, squirrel, brown bear, rabbit, insectivorous, mink, fox, Turkmen fox, rudak, otter, lynx, shoka, sheng, ram and sheep, whole and goat, boar, cat Pallas, wolves, merals, salamanders, forest frogs, green toads, four-toed turtles, legless lizards, blue snakes, braids, snakes and Caucasian vipers.
Source: IRNA