PIROTAN'S CORAL REEF
Gujarat has the distinction of creating the
country's first Marine National Park spread over an area of nearly 458 sq.
kms in the Gulf of
Kachchh, 30 kms from
Jamnagar. Offshore from the southern
coast of the gulf of Kachchh, an archipelago of 42 islands sits like little
gems in the Arabian Sea.
Here,
corals create fantasies in stone and are the master builders of the Park.
These are home to some of the finest coral reef formations on India's west
coast, some fringed by mangrove forests. Their limestone fortresses - each
one the work of a colony of countless tiny animals - come in an amazing
variety of shapes and sizes, from the convoluted brain coral to corals that
look like horns.
The waters of the gulf are home to the dolphin, the finless porpoise and
dugong sea cow. In 1980, the Gulf of
Kachchh
was declared India's first marine nature reserve, and in 1982 it became
India's first marine national park.
MAIN PARK POPULATION
Turtles, shrimp, sponge, eels, sea urchin lurk among the corals and huge
schools of fish create a brilliance of colours that are unknown, unseen and
unimaginable. Here you can see dolphins and octopuses.
Dugong, a marine mammal, which resembles a seal and the rare Boralia
species are found in these protected areas. The park has dense mangrove
growth, which provides scores of birds with nesting and roosting sites.
MARINE
LIFE
Sea turtles nest on the beaches. The coral reefs are a blaze of colour,
home to a variety of rare life forms like the octopus, sea hare and 200
species of molluscs. Also colourful fish like the puffer, butterfly and
parrot; and echinoderms like the star fish, brittle star, sand dollar, sea
urchin and sea cucumber. More than 40 species of sponges in vivid shades of
green, red, pink and other colours abound.
Soft corals include the sea anemone, sea fans and sea pens which resemble a
bed of flowers in this brilliant underwater world. Thousands of shore birds
like crab plovers, terek sandpipiers, oystercatchers and sanderlings descend
on the mud banks to feed on the array of beached marine life when the tide
turns. In summer and the monsoons, more than 30 species of birds including
herons, darters and terns nest on the island shores and canopies of the
mangrove trees.
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