Coastal anthropogenic activities such as sand
mining, disposal of untreated or partially treated
sewage and industrial effluents from selected
centres along Indian coastline and their possible
impacts impairing the coastal environment are
discussed with the data collected for two year
period from eight maritime states of India. Destruction
of macro benthos due to large scale sand mining
along the Malabar coast was estimated to show an
average of 2760 m-2 day-1 equivalent to 10.42 g m-2
day-1 (wet weight) registering maximum during the
post monsoon season. Non biodegradable objects
such as polythene carry bags, ropes and sachets
were recovered in considerable quantities from the
beaches (0.145-9.8 g m-2) as well as from the fishing
grounds (32-85 g haul-1). The domestic sewage
disposed to Visakhapatnam inshore area registered
appreciable density of toxic algal species such as
Gonyalux fragilis, Peridnium depressum and
Porocentrum gracile. Annual average of mercury in
soft tissues of crab Portunus sanguinolentus was
found in very high levels from Veraval (2.90 ppm)
followed by Tuticorin (2.39 ppm), Visakhapatnam
(1.83 ppm) and Cochin (1.77 ppm). However, arsenic
levels were very high in all the tissue samples
collected from Tuticorin, Mandapam, Chennai and
Visakhapatnam
