ZSI to prepare proposal for monitoring, conservation of coral reefs

Kolkata: The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) is preparing a proposal for an All India Coordinated Project for monitoring and conservation of coral reefs in the eco-system.

The ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEF) will prepare an action plan on the basis of the proposal which will be adopted across six centres in the country for conservation of coral reefs that are currently facing severe threat of depletion.

"We are already working toward preparing the proposal and hope to submit it to the MoEF ministry within this budget year so that work for monitoring and conservation of coral reefs can start from March-April," said Dr Kailash Chandra, director of ZSI.

The six centres where the action plan will be taken up include Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep, Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Sindhudurg near Malvan, Maharashtra and Netrani Islands in Karnataka. There will be two separate proposal on the part of ZSI — one exclusively on coral and another on coral reefs and its allied creatures.

Recently, a three-day International Conference on Status and Protection of Coral Reefs titled Stapcor 2018 was held at Lakshadweep organised by ZSI in co-ordination with the local administration. Noted scientists from member countries interacted and shared their scientific knowledge for the conservation of coral reefs.

It may be mentioned that the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI) has declared the year 2018 as the International Year of the Reef (IYOR 2018).

IYOR 2018 is aimed at raising awareness about the threats to coral reefs and associated ecosystem. According to scientists at ZSI, coral reefs are treasure troves of the world seas. No other ecosystem on Earth is as valued for their aesthetics and biodiversity as coral reefs, which are currently facing severe threat of depletion of great consequences for their immensely rich biodiversity.

The current status of coral reefs indicates that it has lost more than half of its cover over the last two decades due to direct or indirect anthropogenic pressures associated with the climate change — mediated bleaching that is reaching alarming dimensions to become "one of the great tragedies of

the modern world."

"Protection of coral reefs in our marine environment is possible only through a "collective will" to curtailing the rate of progression of global warming. It also requires field-level implementations of science-based policies with a view to conserving the biodiversity and ecosystem benefits," a senior ZSI

scientist said.