With the passage of time, hobbies of people have also evolved through the centuries. While hobbies and leisure activities were concerned with exploration and walking, subsequent to the discovery of the printing press in the 16th century, the print book gained prominence in the eyes of many. Gardening, on the other hand, scarcely began as a hobby for professional gardeners were employed for the purpose of maintaining vast estates of the elite but with the passage of time, gardening has been taken up by many as a leisure activity. This activity of gardening is no longer restricted to dry land alone, as any person staying in a Maldives resort has now discovered.
The El Nino weather phenomenon in 1998 is believed to have adversely affected the marine life and coral reefs of the cluster of Maldivian islands in the heart of the Indian Ocean by making the reefs highly vulnerable. This vulnerability coupled with the effect of the deadly 2004 tsunami led to the destruction of a number of reefs surrounding these beautiful islands. In an effort to combat this unnecessary destruction, coral adoption and reforestation initiatives have been established by marine biologists with resorts such as Anantara Dhigu Resort & Spa Maldives taking up the responsibility to establish their own adoption programs. This resort established a coral nursery in 2010 and the project has been thriving ever since.
In this process of underwater gardening, biologists have replanted fragments of reefs and within a year progress was visible with stag horn and table corals quickly forming colonies making them ripe for the introduction of other coral species as well. Though the reforestation programme cannot hope to replant every single coral species, a number of species have already been successfully planted and propagated and biologists are optimistic about the future development and conservation of the Maldivian coral reefs.
Uditha Dharmawardhane is a travel writer who writes under the pen name Roland Lefevre. He specializes in creating features on leisure as well as business travel destinations across the globe.