Angria Bank is a

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

, a shallow sunken

atoll An atoll () is a ring-shaped island, including a coral rim that encircles a lagoon partially or completely. There may be coral islands or cays on the rim. Atolls are located in warm tropical or subtropical oceans and seas where corals can gr ...

, on the continental shelf off the west coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It is located west of Vijaydurg, Maharashtra. It has

platform Platform may refer to: Technology * Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run * Platform game, a genre of video games * Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models * Weapons platform, a system or ...

type

coral reef A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. C ...

. The name Angria Bank is derived from the name of one of the most successful Naval Admiral of

Maratha Empire The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Sh ...

Kanhoji Angre Kanhoji Angre (Marathi: कान्होजी आंग्रे, anʱod͡ʒiː aːŋɡɾe, also known as Conajee Angria or Sarkhel Angré (August 1669 – 4 July 1729) was a chief of the Maratha Navy in present-day India. Kanhoji became k ...

, whose name was spelled ''Conajee Angria'' by the british.

Geography

The bank is at an average depth of approximately , and its dimensions are from north to south and from east to west. It is a

. The depth may vary; at some points, the water is deep, and at other points, the seafloor can be below sea level. The bottom is composed of sand, shells, and coral. The bank is steep-to on all sides, with great depths surrounding it.Sailing Directions: West Coast of India, Sector 2: Diu Head to Cape Rama, page 40
/ref> Angria Bank is north of

Adas Bank Adas Bank is a submerged bank located off the west coast of India, between Angria Bank (200 km to the north) and Cora Divh bank of the Laccadive Islands (90 km to the south). Geography The nearest coast is the Indian mainland close t ...

, a similar submerged feature off the coast of

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

Marine life

In late December 2019, the Wildlife Conservation Society of India launched an expedition to Angria Bank, discovering a coral reef that hadn't bleached yet. The government of India plans to designate Angria Bank as a marine protected reserve. Angria Bank is known to have at least one

laced moray The laced moray (''Gymnothorax favagineus''), also known as the leopard moray, leopard moray eel, tessellate moray or honeycomb moray, is a species of marine fish in the Family (biology), family Muraenidae. Description ''Gymnothorax favagineus' ...

eel, a school of

schooling bannerfish The schooling bannerfish (''Heniochus diphreutes''), also known as the false moorish idol, is a marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish from the family Chaetodontidae. It is native to the Indo-Pacific area. Description The schooling bannerfish ...

, and a red knob sea star. Several

common dolphins The common dolphin (''Delphinus delphis'') is the most abundant cetacean in the world, with a global population of about six million. Despite this fact and its vernacular name, the common dolphin is not thought of as the archetypal dolphin, with ...

and Indo-Pacific

bottlenose dolphins Bottlenose dolphins are aquatic mammals in the genus ''Tursiops.'' They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus definitively contains two species: the comm ...

inhabit the deeper waters of the coast. During the 8-day expedition to Angria Bank that started on the 18th of December, over 150 species of corals and algae were documented with no visible signs of bleaching."Expedition to Angria Bank"
12 March 2020. Retrieved 14 October 2020.

Tourism

, Angria Bank is accessible by a two-hour boat ride from

Malvan Malvan (also written as Malwan) is a town and ''taluka'' in Sindhudurg District, the southernmost district of Maharashtra State, India, well known for the historically important Sindhudurg Fort. Malvan ''taluka'' consists of villages such as ...

, Maharashtra. In 2008, Maharashtra state Finance Minister

Jayant Patil Jayant Rajaram Patil (born 16 February 1962) is an Indian politician from the state of Maharashtra. He has been representing Islampur (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly for more than 3 decades. He was the Cab ...

announced a Rs 50 million initiative to explore Angria Bank to determine the feasibility of further marine tourism in the area."Mah govt plans to explore tourism potential of 'Angria Bank'."
WebIndia123.com 19 March 2008. Retrieved 20 June 2008. The first ever underwater scientific expedition was carried out by the National Institute of Oceanography in 1985 . It revealed significant biodiversity though the results are yet to be published.

Geography

Marine life

Tourism

See also

References

Further reading