Coral reefs of India, their conservation and management

Coral reefs are natural gift to mankind, and are built in thousands of years by millions of tiny coral polyps. Reefs give food for mankind, material for scientific research, ample opportunities for recreation and past time. We need the reef, reefs need our attention; certainly we should keep them for future generation

Coral reef ecosystems

Coral reefs constitute the most dominant marine benthic ecosystem of tropical seas. The complexity of. the biotic and abiotic interactions, coupled with rich biodiversity of reef dwelling and reef building fauna and flora are comparable to those prevailing in tropical rain forests. Several important problems related to coral reefs all over the world, such as, biodiversity, biogeochemical cycles, nutrient flux, environmental degradation and ecological collapse, exploitation of reef resources- their conservation and management, have been addresse

An assessment of the effects of environment and human interference on the coral reefs of Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar along the Indian Coast

The environmental and man-made changes that affects the coral growth and associated animals and fishery in Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar along the Indian coast are discussed. Quarrying of corals for industrial use has turned out to be a serious threat to the reefs. Removal of corals in several places has caused settlement of sand and growth of sea-grass and algae at former sites of well developed reefs

Corals

Corals art objects of beauty and utility. They are found only in the sea, mainly in tropical and subtropics1 regions. Only very few, other than students of biology know that they are sedentary animals possessing a hard internal or external skeleton. They have attracted the attention of the biologists only recently and several problems related to them are still not explained to our fullest satisfaction. Earlier naturalists regarded them as marine plants, probably due to their sedentary habit and plant-like growth form, It was only in the latter half of the cigbteenth century Peyssonnel proved the animal nature of corals, But even middle nineteenth century students of natural history assigned them a place only between animals and plants and wore accordingly called 'zoophytes'

A review of the status of corals and coral reefs of India

Precise estimation of the biodiversity of corals from any area is subject to variation due to uncertainty of synonymy. Corals exhibit very high intraspecific skeletal variation depending on the physiographic and hydrographic condition. The present paper describes overview of coral resources in Indian seas, their biology and taxonomy, anthropogenic stress on coral reefs, conservation and research efforts being put by various organisation

Marine Biodiversity: Conservation and management-Introduction

There has been a realisation in the latter part of twentieth century on the imperative need to protect and conserve the habitats and their resources. In the Biodiversity convention at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) the term biodiversity is defined as "the variability among living organisms from all sources including inter alia, terrestial, marine and other ecosystems and the ecological complexes of which they are part, this includes diversity within species, between species and of ecosystems.

Report on the Stony Corals from the Maldive Archipelago

The Maldive Archipelago, situated at the southwest of India, consists of 22 atolls, extending over a length of nearly 470km in a north-south direction. The northern limit is Ihavandiffulu Atoll (7"'05'N, 72' 55'E), while Addu, one of the scientifically well known atolls, is located at the southern tip (0' 40'5, 73'1 O'E). The largest among the Maldivian atolls is located in the northern half of the chain and is known by twO names, a nonhern smaller part called Tiladummati, and the southern part Miladummadulu. At the middle pan of the Archipelago the atolls are arranged in two almost parallel rows, incorporating a great number of Faros with their small lagoon-like water bodies, termed Velu. The type locality of Atolls and Faros are the Maldives, the names originating from the Maldivian language. Nearly 2000 small islands enter into the geography of the Maldives, of which circa 200 are inhabited with a population of nearly 120000

Report on the Stony Corals from the Red Sea

The first to mention corals of the Red Sea was Thomas SHAW, who travelled through Tunisis , Algeria, Egypt, Syria and the Sinai Peninsula, and who in his "Travels or observations re lati ng to several parts of Barbary and the Levant" described 24 corals of Et Tur (1738, German edition 1765). From these one can recognize P1atygyra, Favia, Goniastrea, Acropora, Stylophora and Tubipora, but his Latin descriptions are not sufficient for an identification at a species level

Scleractinian corals from the Gulf of Kutch

The Scleratinian corals of the Gulf of Kutch from the north-west coast of India is taxonomically analysed. The coral fauna include 37 species among 24 genera. Out of these, 20 genera with 33 species are hermatypec and the rest 4 genera and 4 species is ahermatypes. Early mention in literature on the occurrence of genera such as Pavona, Podabacia, Leptoria and Lobophyllia from the Gulf of Kutcb is not taken into account, since these records are based on unconfirmed determinations. All genera and species considered are widespread in the Indo-Pacific coral provinces and no new species is described herein

Environmental deterioration in Lakshadweep and need for conservation of living resources

The Lakshadweep Archipelago is located on the Laccadive - Chagos ridge, believed to be the submarine extension of the Aravalli mountains. The various atolls rise from a depth ranging from 1500 to 4000 m. The Lakshadweep Archipelago consists of 12 atolls, 3 reefs and 5 submerged banks, all of coral formations. The total land area is about 32 sq km. The height of islands vary from 1 to 1.4 m from MSL