Marine resources of islands: status and approaches for sustainable exploitation/conservation with special emphasis to Andaman and Nicobar

Island ecosystem is unique but with a great diversity. Marine resource potential of Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI) is underutilized. The sensitive ecosystems of corals and Mangroves are facing threats as a result of changing climate. Potential fishery resources need to be exploited in sustainable manner for income and employment generation of islanders. Primary data on resources of Bay Islands are collected resorting to standard survey methods and secondary data are used as supporting data for analyzing the trend and potential of fisheries in ANI. The paper is depicting in details the major marine resources and their status in Bay Islands and approaches for their sustainable exploitation and conservation

Polychaete infestation on porite corals in the Andaman Sea

Polychaete infestations are common among the porites group of corals in Andaman and Nicobar group of islands. However, these infestations occur in small numbers and the intensity of the effect is not so pronounced. The number and intensities of polychaetes in various transects surveyed indicates that anthropogenic activities are playing a major role in proliferating the polychaete infestation, which are otherwise in a low profile. The surveys were conducted for assessing the reef health status at North Bay, Havelock Hathi Dera, Aberdeen jetty, Chidiyatapu, and North Wandoor. In sites which are directly exposed to human activities, the number of feather duster polychaetes and Christmas tree polychaetes are high. In North Bay reef the polychaete infection was very high which shows the effect of tourism. Aberdeen jetty and Havelock jetty also, the polychaete number is high on Porites sp. Such incidences are not encountered in areas with less anthropogenic disturbance

Documentation of gill net operation and major fish landings at Andaman Islands, India, during 2014 - 2018

Three decades before, the gillnet was the major gear in Andaman and Nicobar Islands(ANI), India, because of the less expensive and simple method of operation with non-motorised small dinghies or without craft. Earlier, the gillnet landing was 39% of the total landings and a further report said 27%, which indicated the decrease in gillnet landings. The present study was carried out from 2014 to 2018 at four main fish landing centers (FLCs) Junglighat, Dignabad, Guptapara and Wandoor of ANI to investigate the present status of major gillnet landings. Altogether 1097 visits were carried out at all FLCs and 63.1% of visits occurred at Junglighat. The total landings of all FLCs were 3880.6 tons, of which 98.6% were recorded at Junglighat. The total gillnet landings were 330.4tons, of which Driftnet covered 82.1%, followed by bottom plastic(9.8%) and bottom nylon(8%) gillnets.  Significant landings (P<0.0001) of Scombridae family were recorded through Drift gillnet (182.47tons) compared to other families. The family of Carangidae(7.71tons) and Clupeidae(16.54tons) were recorded dominantly through bottom plastic and bottom nylon gillnets, respectively. The gillnetters explored 31 fishing grounds in the South, Middle, North and Little Andamans sectors. The significant (P<0.0001) fish catch was recorded from the South Andaman sector. A total of 17 validation experiments carried out in each Potential Fishing Zone (PFZ) and Non-PFZ by using PFZ advisories indicated a significant(P<0.0001) catch from PFZ(3.5:1). There was a decline of 18.5% in the landings of gillnet than earlier studies. It is suggested that the fishermen may follow the PFZ forecast for a better catch. The gillnet fishing to be promoted to under-exploited pelagic fishes of these islands will benefit the gillnetters

Feasibility of Buffalo Rearing on Pasture in Tropical Climate of Andaman and Nicobar Islands

The Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands form the Southern most tip of the Indian subcontinent, located (6-14° N latitude and 92-94°E longitude) in the South Eastern part of the Bay of Bengal .There are 572 Islands of which only 37 are currently inhabited. The Islands are beautiful and unique. The indigenous plants, animals, livestock, and marine life contribute to uniqueness of these Islands. The total livestock population has increased to many fold from meager 38.6 thousand in 1961 to 154.75 thousand in 2012. The buffalo constitute 5.08 per cent of the livestock of Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The buffaloes are of mongrel populations which are inheritance from Murrah, Nagpuri, Bhadawari, Marathwada and nondescript population. They are water buffalo and have very low milk yield. The herd size varies from 4 to 21. The buffalo populations in these groups of islands are recorded to be 7863 as per 2012 livestock census. The milk production from the buffalo is 1.843 thousand tons for the year 2013-14. Standard feeding systems indicate that the feed and fodder available are not sufficient to meet the requirement of the livestock. Severe shortages of both dry and green fodder remain the major concern for production of milk from the present livestock population. It is estimated a shortages of dry and green fodder are 51.80 percent and 99.56 per cent respectively (Kundu et al., 2010). However these Island livestock has adapted themselves to the subsistence type of feeding management for production purposes. Due to non availability of regular and ample fodder for the stall feeding of the livestock, owners resort to letting their animals stray for grazing. The grassland or fallow lands available in the area are being used for grazing for the buffalo. The grass land of Andaman has been developed due to the deforestation of virgin forest and consists of under shurbs, shrubs and trees besides the grasses and forbs, either in the isolation and scattered of in large and small patches with variable density. Climate of these islands have a tropical, maritime climate. The temperature varies from 21.6°C to 32.5° C, the average annual rainfall is about 3100 mm distributed over 8-9 months with range of relative humidity from 74 to 90 per cent throughout the year. Intense solar radiation is observed between February to April. Out of 37 inhabitant islands, 12 islands have no livestock whatsoever and another 4 islands have populations of less than 200. The cattle, buffalo and goat are the predominant livestock species in Andaman group of Islands where as pig and goat are the predominant species for Nicobar group of Islands. The growth rate of selected categories of livestock as per the quinquenial census of both 1997 and 2003 showed a positive growth. The milk production was also increased from 23.18 thousand tons in 2000-01 to 26.42 thousand tons in 2003-04 registering a growth rate of 13.97 per cent during the period of four years. However the growth rate of cattle, buffalo, goat and pig has decreased due to loss of livestock during tsunami which struck these islands on 26th December 2004. It also caused extensive damage to the agricultural land specially the flat land suitable to paddy cultivation. Around 8068.71 hectare paddy land was assessed to be damaged by tsunami/earth quake out of 12000 ha flat land suitable for paddy cultivation. This caused severe shortages of paddy straw for feeding the livestock. Both decrease in livestock population and the non availability of straw resulted in reduction of total milk to 23.890 thousand tons in 2007-2008 registering decline of 9.57 per cent over the 2003-04. The populations of livestock remain in decreasing trend (19th livestock census report). However the milk production recorded as increasing trend with 25.759 thousand tons in the year 2011-12 over 2007-2008

Effect of Plant Growth Regulators on Yield and Quality in Gladiolus under Bay Island Conditions

Field experiments were conducted for two consecutive seasons during 2011-12 and 2012-13 to study the effect of plant growth regulators on gladiolus cv. Chandini. The results revealed that various growth, flowering and corm characters were significantly affected with the application of different growth regulators at different concentrations. Earliness in corm sprouting, spike emergence and maximum duration of spike was observed in GA3 500ppm. Maximum number of leaves per plant, plant height, maximum spike length, rachis length and number of florets per spike were observed in GA3 750ppm. More number of shoots per corm (3.3) was recorded by Benzyl Adenine (BA) at 75ppm. With respect to corm characters maximum number of corms and cormels per plant were observed in BA 100ppm. Maximum weight of single corm, weight of corms per plant, size of single corm and volume of single corm were recorded in GA3 500ppm. Maximum weight of cormels per plant was recorded in BA 100ppm. Maximum value of propagation coefficient was recorded in GA3 500ppm (318.3%)

Development of Marine Ornamental Fishes of Andaman and Nicobar Islands Commercial Scope and Sustainability

The ornamental fish production world-wide has grown to such an extent that it has earned for itself an integrated place of distinction in international fish business. It is estimated that about 1.5 - 2.0 million people worldwide keep marine aquarta and that approximately half of them are in United States alone

Mammals

Mammal

Craft and gear in mangroves - Responsible fishing

How to reconcile livelihood concerns of the marginalized people who inhabit the mangrove areas with that of resource conservation. It is indeed the Achilles’ heel of any mangrove management programme especially when designed in the context of a paradigm of Responsible fisheries as being advocated the world over

Sea-Anemones

Actiniarians are popularly called ‘sea-anemones’ because of their flower-like appearance of the expanded oral disc. They are very common animals of the sea-shore and muddy intertidal belt of estuary. They belong to the Phylum Cnidaria having solitary, cylindrical body. The body is divided into oral disc, column and base. Different workers like- Annandale (1907&1915), Carlgren (1925), Panikkar (1936), Parulekar (1968), Seshaiya and Cuttres (1971), Misra (1975&1976), Misra and Soota (1981), Bairagi (1998) etc. had worked on sea-anemones in Indian waters. Altogether 20 species under 17 genera belong to 10 families have been recorded from India. Among these only 7 species are reported from West Bengal but Bairagi (1998) had confirmed the occurence of 9 species under 7 genera and 5 families from Hoogly- Matla estuarine area of West Bengal

Molluscs

Molluscs constitute a major group in the animal kingdom. In number of species, the mollusca is the second largest phylum after arthropoda. About 1,00,000 living species of molluscs are reported to be occuring in the world. They occupy almost all possible habitats - marine, brackish water, freshwater, land and also arboreal in some groups. India harbours an approximate total of 3,271 species of molluscs spread over nearly 591 genera and 220 families (Mitra and Dey, 1992). On the other hand, a checklist of molluscs of Indian estuaries includes a total of 245 species (120 gastropods and 125 bivalvs) [Subba Rao and Surya Rao ,1985]. They play a significant role in maintaining the steady state of the mangrove ecosystem and enhance its biological potentiality. Molluscs constitute an important faunal component in the food web of any estuarine-marine coastal environment. Previously several taxonomic and ecological survey of estuarine-marine molluscs of India was conducted by several workers (Banford,1867; Annandale and Kemp, 1916; Annandale and Prasad, 1919; Subba Rao et al., 1983; Subba Rao et al., 1992, Khalua et al., 2003). The present study deals with the taxonomic survey (34 species, 24 genera, 22 families and 9 orders) of intertidal macrobenthic molluscs