The average live coral cover in Gulf of Mannar, one of the major coral reef areas in India, dropped from 37% in 2005 to 27.3% in 2021, shows a study by the Suganthi Devadason Marine Research Institute (SDMRI) and the Departments of Environment, Climate Change and Forests.
The report titled ‘Coral Reefs of the Gulf of Mannar: Decadal Changes in Status and Management Paradigms’, released at the Tamil Nadu Climate Summit 2.0 in Chennai on Thursday, provides data on important changes in coral status from the baseline survey in 2005 and the subsequent surveys at permanent monitoring sites from 2007 to 2021.
The share of live corals hit an all time high of 42.9% in 2009, possibly due to the halting of coral mining activities following the 2004 tsunami, but it dropped after widespread coral mortalities due to the second (2010) and third (2016) global bleaching events with a more severe impact in the Mandapam region than in the Keelakarai and Tuticorin regions.
