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. Co ...

s in

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 ...

are one of the most ancient and dynamic ecosystems of India. The coral reefs not only provide a sanctuary to a myriad of marine life but also play a key role in protecting the coastline from erosion. India has about 7517 km of coastline including islands but mainland coast is 6100 km. The Coral reefs in India are mainly restricted to the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India consisting of 572 islands, of which 37 are inhabited, at the junction of the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. The territory is about north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated f ...

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .

Gulf of Kutch The Gulf of Kutch is located between the peninsula regions of Kutch and Saurashtra, bounded in the state of Gujarat that borders Pakistan. It opens towards the Arabian Sea facing the Osman Gulf. It is about 50 km wide at the entrance bef ...

Palk Strait The Palk Strait ( ta, பாக்கு நீரிணை ''Pākku Nīriṇai'', si, පෝක් සමුද්‍ර සන්ධිය ''Pok Samudra Sandhiya'') is a strait between the Tamil Nadu state of India and the Jaffna Distric ...

and the

Lakshadweep Lakshadweep (), also known as Laccadives (), is a union territory of India. It is an archipelago of 36 islands in the Arabian sea, located off the Malabar Coast. The name ''Lakshadweep'' means "one lakh islands" in Sanskrit, though the Lac ...

islands. All of these reefs are Fringing reefs, except

which are

Atolls 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 grow ...

. There are Patchy corals present along the inter-tidal areas of the central west coast like the intertidal regions of

Ratnagiri Ratnagiri (IAST:Ratnāgirī ; �ət̪n̪aːɡiɾiː is a port city on the Arabian Sea coast in Ratnagiri District in the southwestern part of Maharashtra, India. The district is a part of Konkan division of Maharashtra. The city is known for ...

, Gaveshani Bank etc. The

Hermatypic coral Hermatypic corals are those corals in the order Scleractinia which build reefs by depositing hard calcareous material for their skeletons, forming the stony framework of the reef. Corals that do not contribute to coral reef development are referred ...

s are also present along the sea shore from

Kollam Kollam (), also known by its former name Quilon , is an ancient seaport and city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is north of the state capital Thiruvananthapuram. The city i ...

in Kerala to Enayam Puthenthurai in Tamilnadu.

Research and Institutions

The Major Institutions in India involved in the management, monitoring and research on Coral reefs are the

Ministry of Earth Sciences The Ministry of Earth Sciences was formed on 29 January 2006 from a merger of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (NCMRWF), the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IITM), Pune ...

, the

Zoological Survey of India The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), founded on 1 July 1916 by Government of India Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, as premier Indian organisation in zoological research and studies to promote the survey, exploration and r ...

Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute was established in the government of India on 3 February 1947 under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and later, in 1967, it joined the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR ...

Madurai Kamaraj University Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is a public state university located in Madurai city, in southern Tamil Nadu, India, established in 1966. MKU is one of the 15 universities in India with the University with Potential for Excellence status, wh ...

Annamalai University , logo = CampusmapofAU.jpg , image = Annamalai University logo.png , image_size = 225px , motto = "With Courage and Faith" , established = , type ...

National Centre for Earth Science Studies The National Centre for Earth Science Studies(NCESS) (Malayalam: ദേശിയ ഭൗമ ശാസ്ത്ര പഠന കേന്ദ്രം) is an autonomous research centre to promote scientific and technological research and developmen ...

National Institute of Ocean Technology The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) was established in November 1993 as an autonomous society under the Ministry of Earth Sciences in India. NIOT is managed by a Governing Council and is headed by a director. The institute is bas ...

National Institute of Oceanography, India The National Institute of Oceanography, founded on 1 January 1966 as one of 38 constituent laboratories of the CSIR, is a self-governing research organisation in India that conducts scientific research and studies on the unique oceanographic ...

etc. The

Space Applications Centre The Space Applications Centre (SAC) is an institution of research in Ahmedabad under the aegis of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is one of the major centres of ISRO that is engaged in the research, development and demonstrat ...

in Ahmedabad is involved in the data collection of areas under Coral reefs using remote sensing.

Laws and regulations

The

Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) is an Indian government ministry. This ministry is headed by Secretary Rank senior most IAS officer. The ministry portfolio is currently held by Bhupender Yadav, Union Minister of ...

manages and guidelines for the protection of the Coral reefs in India. If the Coral reef region is under a protected area then it comes under the jurisdiction of the State Wild life department. The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification of 1991 gives protection to all marine resources. All types of coral reefs are protected under the CRZ1 category. Its Section 7 (2) prohibits the construction of beach resorts or hotels on coral reefs. In Certain States, the quarrying and collecting of massive corals are banned except for scientific purposes.

List of Coral reefs

:Situated in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

, exclusively fringing reefs of about 572 islands, most of these islands have a healthy biodiversity. * Eastern Coast There is a coral reef near the sea between Chandrabhaga coast and Ramachandi in the

Konark Konark is a medium town in the Puri district in the state of Odisha, India. It lies on the coast by the Bay of Bengal, 65 kilometres from the capital of the state, Bhubaneswar. It is the site of the 13th-century Sun Temple, also known as t ...

area of

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

. *

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .

:Fringing reefs with a chain of 21 islands from

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilo ...

in the north to

Thoothukudi Thoothukudi (formerly Tuticorin) is a port city, a municipal corporation and an industrial city in Thoothukudi district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The city lies in the Coromandel Coast of Bay of Bengal. Thoothukudi is the capital and he ...

(Tuticorin) in the south. This part of the gulf forms part of the

Gulf of Mannar biosphere reserve The Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park is a protected area of India consisting of 21 small islands (islets) and adjacent coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar in the Indian Ocean. It lies 1 to 10 km away from the east coast of Tamil Nadu, Indi ...

. *

:Exclusively consists of

fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...

s. The reefs are relatively less developed due to large range of temperature and high salinity. The harbours have less biodiversity. The entire Gulf of Kutch is also known as a marine national park. *

:Exclusively coral atolls with 36 islands, of which 10 are inhabited. The islands range from less than to about in length, and do not exceed in width. * Western Coast :There are some coral reefs around small inlets in the western part of the

Gulf of Khambat The Gulf of Khambhat, historically known as the Gulf of Cambay, is a bay on the Arabian Sea coast of India, bordering the state of Gujarat just north of Mumbai and Diu Island. The Gulf of Khambhat is about long, about wide in the north and up ...

Angria Bank Angria Bank is a bank, a shallow sunken atoll, on the continental shelf off the west coast of India. It is located west of Vijaydurg, Maharashtra. It has platform type coral reef. The name Angria Bank is derived from the name of one of the m ...

is a coral reef off Vijaydurg in Maharashtra.

Tarkarli Tarkarli is a village in Malvan taluka in Sindhudurg district in the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is a beach destination and remote place in southern Maharashtra. Few years ago, Tarkarli beach is declared as a Queen Beach of Konkan region. ...

Malwan Aagar faliya (also known as Malvan aagar faliya) is a small Indus Valley civilisation site, located at Valsad district in Gujarat, India. This site is, sometimes, considered one of the southernmost limits of Indus Valley civilisation, the other o ...

, Maharashtra is a smaller reef. There is a coral reef in Netrani Island in Karnataka.

Gallery

File:Gujarat Gulfs.jpg, Gulf of Kutch on the left; image by

NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information pertaining to the climate and the Environment (biophysical), environment whi ...

File:Mannar 79.03963E 9.52009N.jpg,

Gulf of Mannar The Gulf of Mannar ( ) is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of .

File:Agatthiyatti Stone.jpg, Scene at

Island File:North Sentinel Island.jpg,

North Sentinel Island North Sentinel Island is one of the Andaman Islands, an Indian archipelago in the Bay of Bengal which also includes South Sentinel Island. It is home to the Sentinelese, an indigenous people in voluntary isolation who have defended, often by f ...

is an island in the group of

Research and Institutions

Laws and regulations

List of Coral reefs

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading