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Wildlife in Gujarat
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 Marine
Sanctury & Marine National Park
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Location: 30 Kms From Jamnagar, Gujarat.
Coverage Area: 458 Sq Kms.
Main Attractions: Coral Reef Formations , India's First Marine
Park.
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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