“The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.”Coral Rehabilitation Programme is one of the most viable management tools to restore the services of degraded reef areas due to climatic and non-climatic conditions. In India, coral rehabilitation programme was first initiated in Tuticorin coast of Gulf of Mannar in 2002 by SDMRI ( Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute) with the support from Ministry of Environment and Forest and Coral reef Degradation in Indian Ocean (CORDIO). This article will give you a good knowledge on everything you need to know about the Coral Rehabilitation Programme in Gulf of Mannar.
The Gulf of Mannar
The Gulf of Mannar which is located on the southeast coast of India is one of the four major coral reef areas in India with 117 corals species.
The coral reefs are formed primarily around the 21 uninhabited coral islands that occur between Rameswaram and Tuticorin.
The area was declared as Gulf of Mannar by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1986.
The 21 islands of Gulf of Mannar have been put under three groups, namely, Tuticorin group, Keelakarai group and Mandapam group for management purposes.
The coral reefs are formed primarily around the 21 uninhabited coral islands that occur between Rameswaram and Tuticorin.
The area was declared as Gulf of Mannar by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1986.
The 21 islands of Gulf of Mannar have been put under three groups, namely, Tuticorin group, Keelakarai group and Mandapam group for management purposes.
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| Image Source |
For the construction of building and roads, massive corals were used during the 1960s.
Coral mining, fishing methods, climatic change and pollution have caused severe damage to the ecosystem of coral reefs and sea-grasses.
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| Pearl Fishing in Gulf on Mannar in the 1920s |
Coral Rehabilitation Programme in Gulf of Mannar
- Coral Rehabilitation Programme started in 2002.
- Coral reefs and sea grasses are important for biodiversity and livelihood but they are known as the fastest degrading, owing to the factors of climatic and non-climatic.
- The impact of climatic change and the effects of non-climatic factors, mainly destructive fishing practices, mining, pollution and coastal development, have altered the community structure and health of corals and sea grasses since 1998.
- It has covered 8 sq km areas in Gulf of Mannar region, where the coral reefs have suffered bleaching and degradation due to climatic change and high level of temperature.
- Corals start growing in around 60 days using the concrete frame as sub-state, whereas the acropora coral species grow by 10 to 12 cm per year on these slabs.
- The site selection, identifiable healthy native coral colonies for fragments near the rehabilitation sites, precision in fragmentation, reduction of time from fragmentation to fixation on substrates, etc are important for the success of coral rehabilitation.
- Coral rehabilitation is successful only if the native healthy coral colonies are available, whereas coral rehabilitaton using fragments from other environmentally different location will not be successful.
Success achieved so far
- In Tuticorin coast, over 1 km sq degraded reef area has been rehabilitated and the overall survival was over 80%. The coral recruit density has increased from 0.53 to 2.55 per m sq and the fish abundance has increased from 34 to 65 per 100 m sq in 5 years.
- The Department of forest, Tamil Nadu funded the rehabilitation of 2 km sq degraded reef area in 4 islands and GOMBRT funded rehabilitation of 1 km sq degraded reef area in 2 islands in Gulf of Mannar.
- SDMRI recently completed the rehabilitation of 1 km sq degraded reef area near Vaan Island in Tuticorin coast in the year (2012-13) under the supervision of Department of Environment, Government of Tamil Nadu.
Importance of Coral Reefs
- It acts as a source of food for millions of marine species.
- It protects the coastlines from storms and erosion.
- It also acts as a source of new medicine.
- It assists in carbon and nitrogen fixing as well as helping with nutrient recycling.
Conditions for growth of Coral Reefs
- Corals are the kind of calcareous rock, that are made of the skeletons of minute sea organisms which are known as ‘polyps’ .Due to the accumulation and compaction of the skeletons of these lime secreting organisms these coral reefs are formed.
- The coral and the organisms and algae associated, are the most common reef builders which are confined to the tropical belt. The temperature of water must not fall below 20° C and not exceed 35°C, the most favourable is 23°C to 25° C.
- Corals can live only in water which are saline, and the average salinity should be between 27 to 40% for their proper growth.
- For the growth of coral the depth of the water should not exceed 200 m.
- Corals also require sediments free clean water, which is disturbed by ocean waves and currents.
- It is necessary to have platforms in the open seas which may act as foundations for the corals which should not be deeper than 90 m.
Classification of Coral Reefs
The coral reefs are classified into three categories on the basis of nature, shape and mode of occurrence. They are discussed below-
Fringing reefs are the coral reefs that develop along the continental margins or along the islands. For example: Sakau Island in New Hebrides, South Florida reef, etc.
It is the most extensive, largest and widest reef among all the other types of coral reefs which is formed off by the coastal platforms and are also parallel to them. For example: The largest barrier reef in the world is the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.
Atoll is a ring of narrow growing chorus shaped like a horse shoe and which are crowned with palm trees. It is found around an island or in an elliptical form on a submarine platform. For example: Trent Atoll of W-Caroline, Fiji Atoll, etc.
Coral reefs are found almost between latitudes 30°N and 25°S and are limited to tropical seas.
On the eastern coasts of North America and Australia, the rich growth of reefs are found.
Corals are not found on the coasts of South America, where the rivers bring large quantities of sediments.
The coral reefs are most common in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, due to the shallow, warm and clean water present there.
The most important areas of coral reef growth lies in the seas off the east coast of Australia and in the Philippines.
Only a few coral reefs lie outside the Indo-Pacific tropical area, of those, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea have some reefs.
Fringing Reef
Barrier Reef
Atoll
Geographical Distribution of Coral Reefs
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| Red dots show the location of Coral Reefs Image Source - NASA |
On the eastern coasts of North America and Australia, the rich growth of reefs are found.
Corals are not found on the coasts of South America, where the rivers bring large quantities of sediments.
The coral reefs are most common in the Pacific and in the Indian Ocean, due to the shallow, warm and clean water present there.
The most important areas of coral reef growth lies in the seas off the east coast of Australia and in the Philippines.
Only a few coral reefs lie outside the Indo-Pacific tropical area, of those, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea have some reefs.
Criticisms
The National Centre for Coastal Research’s (NCCR) proposed of dropping melted plastic rocks or slabs on the seabed for growing coral reefs and addressed the problem of disposing of plastic waste that has drawn criticism from the Gulf of Mannar (GoM) Marine National Park, that has implemented coral rehabilitation programme since 2002. Suggestion that came from NCCR was that plastic waste materials could simply be wound around as hard substrates and it acts as a way of disposing plastics and helping to build coral colonies.The International examples such as use of worn out tyres were tried as artificial reef in Florida and Costa Rica, but they turned out to be catastrophic.
NCCR’s idea would turn the reef into graveyards as Corals in the GOM are already stressed and bleached under climate change.
The structure might look useful initially, but would destroy corals lately.
Conclusion
Coral Reefs are aid to be the most diverse ecosystems on the planet and are also considered as the medicine cabinets of the 21st century because of the several medicines which are developed to treat diseases such as the cancer, arthritis, human bacterial infections, heart diseases, viruses and any other diseases. Therefore, it is very important for us to protect the coral bleaching which is taken place due to the degradation of the environment.
Hello. I am Sajida Asmin Begum. I am pursuing my M.com(hons) in management from Gauhati Commerce College. Along with my masters, i am preparing for the competitive exams also.
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