- Target:
- United nations environmentl programme UNEP, Government of India and the president of India
- Region:
- India
- Website:
- en.wikipedia.org
Lakshwadeep islands have been built up by corals and have fringing coral reefs very close to their shores.
Indias coral islandsof lakshwadeep : The Aminidivi group islands (consisting of Amini, Keltan, Chetlat, Kadamat, Bitra and Perumal Par) and the Laccadive group islands (comprising mainly Androth, Kalpeni, Kavaratti, Pitti and Suheli Par), both have a submarine connection between them. Together with Minicoy Island, located at the southern end of the 200 km broad Nine Degree Channel, they form the Coral Islands of India in the Arabian Sea. All these islands have been built up by corals and have fringing coral reefs very close to their shores.
Two banks further north are not considered part of the group:
Angria Bank
Adas Bank
Lakshadweep /ləkˈʃɑːdwiːp/ ( Lakṣadvīp (help·info), Lakshadīb, Malayalam: ലക്ഷദ്വീപ്, Mahl: ލަކްޝަދީބު) formerly known as the Laccadive, Minicoy, and Aminidivi Islands /ˌlækədaɪv ˌmɪnɨkɔɪ/ & /ˌæmɨnˈdiːvi/,[2]) is a group of islands in the Laccadive Sea, 200 to 440 kilometres (120 to 270 mi) off the south western coast of India. The archipelago is a Union Territory and is governed by the Union Government of India. They were also known as Laccadive Islands, although geographically this is only the name of the central subgroup of the group.
Lakshadweep comes from "Lakshadweepa", which means "one hundred thousand islands" in Sanskrit as well as many Indian languages like Telugu, Malayalam, Tulu, Kannada, Hindi, Tamil and others.[3][4] The islands form the smallest Union Territory of India: their total surface area is just 32 square kilometres (12 sq mi).2 The lagoon area covers about 4,200 square kilometres (1,600 sq mi), the territorial waters area 20,000 square kilometres (7,700 sq mi) and the exclusive economic zone area 400,000 square kilometres (150,000 sq mi). The region forms a single Indian district with ten sub divisions. Kavaratti serves as the capital of the Union Territory and the region comes under the jurisdiction of Kerala High Court. The islands are the northernmost of the Lakshadweep-Maldives-Chagos group of islands, which are the tops of a vast undersea mountain range, the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakshadweep#India.27s_Coral_Islands
The Lakshadweep islands are located in a geographical area bounded between 8 and 12ºN and 72 and 74ºE, about 120- 200 nautical miles off the south west coast of India. The Lakshadweep islands are the northernmost part of the Laccadive-Chagos ridge and consist of 11 atolls with about 36 islands on them and several submerged coralline banks.
Most of the atolls have low-lying islands on the east, a reef on the west and a lagoon in between. The largest island is Minicoy with a length of about 9 km, and an area of 4.37 km2. The smaller inhabited island is Bitra with an area of 0.1 km2. The uninhabited islands range in size between 0.01 and 0.46 km2
Thanks to the vast lagoon and coralline banks, the actual lagoonal area amounts to 4200 km2, compared to the 32 km2 of island area. The spread of the islands is such that the Exclusive Economic Zone of India is extended by another 4,00,000 km2 lakshadweep.nic.in/depts/laktech/lcrmn_laks.htm
We, the undersigned, call on the UN, United nations environmental programme UNEP, Government of India and prime minister of India to stop Excessive mining which leads to declining coral reefs in Lakshadweep.
Fishermen’s catch will go down drastically: ZSI Director
A drastic decline in the live coral cover in Lakshadweep has been reported, causing serious concern among researchers and naturalists.
K. Venkataraman, Director, Zoological Survey of India (ZSI), told The Hindu that the development came to light recently during a study. In the summer of 2010, bleaching took place in coral reefs areas in the country. But, those in the Kavaratti islands in Lakshadweep were badly affected by bleaching. This could be due to increased heat conditions, which was an indication of climate change, he said.
Till 2010, the live coral reef cover in the island was recorded at 27 per cent, which dropped to 11 per cent in the subsequent year because of the May 2010 bleaching.
Similarly, the dead coral rock population was estimated to be 21 per cent before the bleaching, which rose to 67 per cent after the incident, he said.
Dr. Venkataraman said: “Declining coral reef will result in fishermen’s catch going down drastically.
In India, 5 million tonnes of fish catch was reported annually, of which 3.75 tonnes were from marine ecosystems.
About a quarter of the total population lives along the coast and is dependent on the marine wealth, which provides the required protein for them.”
R. Rajkumar, Scientist, ZSI, said bleaching in coral reef areas across the world has become a common phenomenon after 1998. However, this time in Kavaratti island in Lakshadweep, an unprecedented bleaching took place, which led to the negative growth of coral colonies there. Apart from climate change, overexploitation and mindless mining of coral reef colonies led to degrading of coral reef. This will directly affect the fishes and other organisms found in there. Increased bleaching will further deteriorate the coral reef colonies, he said.
When asked about the mitigation and ameliorative measures by the local authorities in Lakshadweep, ZSI sources said so far no full-fledged restoration measures were taken. Another ZSI official pointed out that the local administration may not have the capacity to take up the ameliorative measures to restore the ecosystem in Kavaratti.
Keywords: Lakshadweep coral reefs, Zoological Survey of India, Kavaratti islands, dead coral rock population, marine ecosystems, coral reef mining
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The Please save the Lakshwadeep Coral Reefs petition to United nations environmentl programme UNEP, Government of India and the president of India was written by mitali ghosh and is in the category Environment at GoPetition.