What an Atoll Actually Is, and Why Lakshadweep Is the Only One India Has
An atoll is not a beach with coral nearby. It is a coral structure that built the land itself. The 36 islands of Lakshadweep sit on top of ancient reef platforms that grew upward from submerged volcanic seamounts over tens of thousands of years. As the seamounts slowly sank, the coral kept pace with the sea surface, leaving behind a ring of reef enclosing a shallow lagoon. India has 7,500 kilometres of coastline. Fringing reefs exist off the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, off Gulf of Mannar, off Palk Bay. But true atolls, where the island is the reef, exist only here, in the Arabian Sea, 200 to 440 kilometres off the Kerala coast.
