What are mangroves and where mangroves are found in India?

Mangroves are those forest ecosystems whose vegetation tolerates both relatively high water salinity and flooding at regular intervals.

They are reservoirs of a large number of plant and animal species associated together over a long evolutionary time. But the species composition of plant and animals varies from place to place with tidal amplitude, nature of soil; land profile, quality of water, salinity etc. These ecosystems of tropical and sub- tropicainter-tidal regions bordering the sheltered sea coasts and estuaries, they stabilise the shoreline and act as bulwark against encroachments by the sea.

Some of the best mangroves in the world occur in the alluvial deltas of Ganga, Gadavari, Krishana, Kaveri and in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. This mangrove vegetation all along Indian coastline in sheltered estuary, tidal creeks, back waters, salt marshes-covering about 6700 sq.km. Which is about 7% of the worlds’ total mangrove areas?

Fifteen areas have been selected on the basis of the recommendations of the National Committee on wetlands. They are, Andman and Nicobar, Sundarbans in west Bengal, Bhitarkanika in Orissa, Coringa, Krishana and Godavari delta in A.P point Calimere in T.N, Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat, Coondapur in Karnataka, Vembanad in Kerala. Apart these, an additional 15 mangroves have been identified such as subernarekha, Devi & Dhama in Orissa- Ramanard in T.N. Dakshin Kanada in Karnataka, Kalsuri in Maharashtra etc.