Marine National Park in the

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 Gulf of Oman. It is about 50 km wide at the entrance b ...

is situated on the southern shore of the Gulf of Kutch in the

Devbhumi Dwarka district Devbhumi Dwarka District is a district of India located on the southern coast of the Gulf of Kutch in the state of Gujarat. Its headquarters are located in the city of Jamkhambhaliya. The district was created on 15 August 2013 from Jamnagar ...

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

state,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. In 1980, an area of 270 km² from Okha to

Jodiya Jodia (also spelled Jodiya) is a town in Jamnagar district, Gujarat, India. Jodia was the well-known port of India before 1947. The activity of jodiya Port was at peak in 1980 era. Jodiya Port had railway connectivity till 1978.It has a sainik sc ...

was declared Marine Sanctuary. Later, in 1982, a core area of 110 km² was declared Marine National Park under the provisions of the Wildlife (protection) Act, 1972 of India. There are 42 islands on the

Jamnagar Jamnagar () is a city and the headquarters of Jamnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city lies just to the south of the Gulf of Kutch, some west of the state capital, Gandhinagar. The city was the capital of Nawanagar State, Na ...

coast in the Marine National Park, most of them surrounded by

reefs A reef is a ridge or shoal of rock, coral, or similar relatively stable material lying beneath the surface of a natural body of water. Many reefs result from natural, abiotic (non-living) processes such as deposition of sand or wave eros ...

. The best-known island is Pirotan. The park protects two major ecosystems, corals and mangroves.

Fauna

The park is home to more than 40 species of

sponges Sponges or sea sponges are primarily marine invertebrates of the animal phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), a basal clade and a sister taxon of the diploblasts. They are sessile filter feeders that are bound to the seabed, and ar ...

, 40 species of hard coral and 10 species of soft coral. A Sea Slug on the sea floor rock of the Narara Marine National Park

Jellyfish Jellyfish, also known as sea jellies or simply jellies, are the #Life cycle, medusa-phase of certain gelatinous members of the subphylum Medusozoa, which is a major part of the phylum Cnidaria. Jellyfish are mainly free-swimming marine animal ...

, Portuguese man of war and sea anemones are other coelenterates found here.

Arthropods Arthropods ( ) are invertebrates in the phylum Arthropoda. They possess an arthropod exoskeleton, exoskeleton with a cuticle made of chitin, often Mineralization (biology), mineralised with calcium carbonate, a body with differentiated (Metam ...

include 27 species of

prawns Prawn is a common name for small aquatic crustaceans with an exoskeleton and ten legs (members of the order of decapods), some of which are edible. The term ''prawn''Mortenson, Philip B (2010''This is not a weasel: a close look at nature's most ...

, 30 species of

crabs Crabs are decapod crustaceans of the infraorder Brachyura (meaning "short tailed" in Greek), which typically have a very short projecting tail-like abdomen, usually hidden entirely under the thorax. Their exoskeleton is often thickened and ha ...

lobsters Lobsters are malacostracans decapod crustaceans of the family Nephropidae or its synonym Homaridae. They have long bodies with muscular tails and live in crevices or burrows on the sea floor. Three of their five pairs of legs have claws, in ...

, shrimps and other

crustaceans Crustaceans (from Latin meaning: "those with shells" or "crusted ones") are invertebrate animals that constitute one group of Arthropod, arthropods that are traditionally a part of the subphylum Crustacea (), a large, diverse group of mainly aquat ...

Molluscs Mollusca is a phylum of protostome, protostomic invertebrate animals, whose members are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 76,000 extant taxon, extant species of molluscs are recognized, making it the second-largest animal phylum ...

like pearl oysters and sea slugs are present.

Octopus An octopus (: octopuses or octopodes) is a soft-bodied, eight-limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, and nautiloids. Like oth ...

which change colour are also found.

Echinoderms An echinoderm () is any animal of the phylum Echinodermata (), which includes starfish, brittle stars, sea urchins, sand dollars and sea cucumbers, as well as the sessile sea lilies or "stone lilies". While bilaterally symmetrical as larv ...

starfish Starfish or sea stars are Star polygon, star-shaped echinoderms belonging to the class (biology), class Asteroidea (). Common usage frequently finds these names being also applied to brittle star, ophiuroids, which are correctly referred to ...

, sea cucumbers and sea urchins are present. The fishes found are puffer fishes, sea horse, sting ray, mudskippers and

whale sharks Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

which are an endangered species. Endangered sea turtles such as green sea turtles, olive ridleys and leatherbacks are seen here. There are three species of

sea snakes Sea snakes, or coral reef snakes, are elapid snakes that inhabit marine environments for most or all of their lives. They belong to two subfamilies, Hydrophiinae and Laticaudinae. Hydrophiinae also includes Australasian terrestrial snakes, w ...

. There are

dugong The dugong (; ''Dugong dugon'') is a marine mammal. It is one of four living species of the order Sirenia, which also includes three species of manatees. It is the only living representative of the once-diverse family Dugongidae; its closest ...

s and smaller

cetacean Cetacea (; , ) is an infraorder of aquatic mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises. Key characteristics are their fully aquatic lifestyle, streamlined body shape, often large size and exclusively c ...

s like finless porpoises,

common dolphin 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, wit ...

bottlenose dolphin The bottlenose dolphin is a toothed whale in the genus ''Tursiops''. They are common, cosmopolitan members of the family Delphinidae, the family of oceanic dolphins. Molecular studies show the genus contains three species: the common bot ...

s and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins. Larger whales such as

blue whale The blue whale (''Balaenoptera musculus'') is a marine mammal and a baleen whale. Reaching a maximum confirmed length of and weighing up to , it is the largest animal known ever to have existed. The blue whale's long and slender body can ...

sei whale The sei whale ( , ; ''Balaenoptera borealis'') is a baleen whale. It is one of ten rorqual species, and the third-largest member after the blue and fin whales. It can grow to in length and weigh as much as . Two subspecies are recognized: ...

s are seen.

Humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the monotypic taxon, only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh u ...

s, and

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the Genus (biology), genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the s ...

s may have been almost wiped out due to illegal whaling by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

Whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of . The whale shark holds many records for ...

s can be found in deeper areas. A surprisingly large scale

greater flamingo The greater flamingo (''Phoenicopterus roseus'') is the most widespread and largest species of the flamingo family. Common in the Old World, they are found in Northern (coastal) and Sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Subcontinent (south of the Him ...

colony, reaching up to 20,000 nests is known to occur along the gulf and many other birds species found here like crab plovers, sandpipers,

western reef egret The western reef heron (''Egretta gularis''), also called the western reef egret, is a medium-sized heron found in southern Europe, Africa and parts of Asia. It has a mainly coastal distribution and occurs in several plumage forms: a slaty-grey ...

great egret The great egret (''Ardea alba''), also known as the common egret, large egret, great white egret, or great white heron, is a large, widely distributed egret. The four subspecies are found in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and southern Europe. R ...

ruff Ruff may refer to: Places *Ruff, Virginia, United States, an unincorporated community *Ruff, Washington, United States, an unincorporated community Other uses *Ruff (bird) (''Calidris pugnax'' or ''Philomachus pugnax''), a bird in the wader famil ...

, eurasian oystercatcher, greenshanks, redshanks,

gulls Gulls, or colloquially seagulls, are seabirds of the subfamily Larinae. They are most closely related to terns and Skimmer (bird), skimmers, distantly related to auks, and even more distantly related to waders. Until the 21st century, most gul ...

skimmer Skimmer may refer to: Animals *Skimmer (bird), a common name for birds in the genus ''Rynchops'' *Skimmer (dragonfly), a common name for dragonflies in the family Libellulidae *Water strider or skimmer, a common name for insects in the family Ge ...

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family (biology), family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and goose, geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfam ...

pelican Pelicans (genus ''Pelecanus'') are a genus of large water birds that make up the family Pelecanidae. They are characterized by a long beak and a large throat pouch used for catching prey and draining water from the scooped-up contents before ...

storks Storks are large, long-legged, long-necked wading birds with long, stout Beak, bills. They belong to the family (biology), family Ciconiidae, and make up the order Ciconiiformes . Ciconiiformes previously included a number of other families, suc ...

Godwit Godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly bird migration, migratory waders of the bird genus ''Limosa''. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms and mollusca, molluscs. In their ...

terns Terns are seabirds in the family (biology), family Laridae, subfamily Sterninae, that have a worldwide distribution and are normally found near the sea, rivers, or wetlands. Terns are treated in eleven genus, genera in a subgroup of the fam ...

. There are 42 islands in the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

with coral reefs and the park is situated in one of those.

Biodiversity and conservation challenges

Marine National Park of Gulf of Kutch is a fragile

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

.Biswas N.
The Gulf of Kutch Marine National Park and Sanctuary: A Case Study
International Collective in Support of Fishworkers Chennai. Retrieved on May 13. 2014 In recent years, biodiversity of marine park has been under threat due to extraction of

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

s and sands by cement industries, increased turbidity of water, oil refineries, chemical industries and mechanised fishing boats. At present, 31 species of corals are reported in the Marine National Park (Kumar et al. 2014). There were two catastrophic and localised (Adhavan et al. 2014) bleaching events happened in this region.

Notes and references

External links

* Kumar, J.S.Y., Marimuthu, N., Geetha, S., Satyanarayana, Ch., Venkataraman, K. and R.D. Kamboj. 2014. J Coast Conserv., 18: 167-17
Longitudinal variations of coral reef features in the Marine National Park, Gulf of Kachchh
* Adhavan, D., Kamboj, R.D., Marimuthu, N. and Bhalodi, M.M. 2014. Curr. Sci., 107(11): 1780-178
Seasonal variation and climate change influence coral bleaching in Pirotan Island, Gulf of Kachchh Marine National Park, Gujarat
*D. Adhavan, N. Marimuthu, S. Tikadar, K. Sivakumar. 2015. Impact of Algal Bloom on Mangroves and Coral Reef Ecosystemin Marine National Park, Gulf of Kachch, Gujarat, India. Journal of Marine Biology and Aquaculture - 1(2): 1-2.

Images Gulf of Kutch Marine National Park in Jamnagar

Birds and Wildlife in Jamnagar

Hard Corals Order:Scleractinia From Gulf of Kutch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marine National Park, Gulf Of Kutch National parks in Gujarat Protected areas established in 1982 Marine parks of India Tourist attractions in Jamnagar district 1982 establishments in Gujarat

Fauna

Biodiversity and conservation challenges

See also

Notes and references

External links