Tatsat Chronicle Magazine

Last fiscal year, the Maharashtra Mangrove Foundation spent 7.5 percent of its earnings

September 28, 2021
mangrove

In FY20-21, the Mangrove Foundation, a registered society under the state forest division’s mangrove cell, spent 7.5 percent of its earnings on research, security, capability building, asset purchase, and other linked activities for mangrove defence in Maharashtra’s coastal districts

After being established in 2015 with a corpus fund of Rs. 115.7 crore, the Mangrove Foundation’s capital has grown steadily over the years, reaching Rs. 525 crore by the end of March 2021, thanks to mitigation costs from projects such as the Coastal Road, Trans Harbour Link, and Bullet Train. The majority of this money, however, remains unspent due to the foundation’s decision to use only the interest earned to carry out its operations.

“The Mangrove Foundation was established with the mission of operating solely on the interest revenue generated by its corpus funds held in fixed deposits. It also receives project/activity-specific grants from various government ministries and agencies, as well as CSR funds from various business organisations,” according to the inspiration’s annual report. During the previous fiscal year, the foundation had acquired non-corpus funds to the tune of 2.3 crore.

The Foundation is not required by law to keep its corpus monies, according to Neenu Somraj, deputy conservator of forest (DCF), mangrove cell, but has taken this decision based on “longevity.” “We need to consider how long we want to manage the foundation in the future. Before 2018, there was a three-year period in which the corpus did not grow at all. If we spend all of the money now, we may face a financial crisis later. As a result, the decision to use just interest is a calculated move that will aid the organization’s long-term viability,” Somraj explained.

At a reasonable rate of interest of roughly 6%, the mangrove foundation may expect to generate about $30 million in usable income from its current corpus, which, according to officers, would much exceed the whole cost for FY20-21. “Of course, if the corpus develops, we will have more funding to scale up our current activities,” continued Somraj.