India’s six marine national parks are home to some of the rarest aquatic
species in the world.
What are Marine National Parks?
A marine park is a protected sea or a lake area which consists of
many species of marine life. Such marine parks are usually found in the
coastal areas.
Key Highlights:
India’s six marine national parks lie along the country’s 7,517km
coastline: Two are on the west coast (Marine National Park, Gujarat, and
Malvan Marine Wildlife Sanctuary, Maharashtra) and the rest are on the east.
These are the protected reserves and are the breeding grounds of several
aquatic animals.
The Department of Environment and Science (DES) manages state
marine parks as a multi-use marine protected area.
The management of marine national parks typically involves regulating
human activities that may harm the environment, such as fishing, boating,
tourism and others activities.
Note:
Apart from these six, where tourist activity is concentrated, there are
over 135 marine protected areas (MPAs) - 24 off the mainland and over
a hundred spread across islands.
India has no separate legislation for the protection of marine areas;
these are governed under the Wild Life (Protection) Act of 1972.
There is no clear definition of a marine park/sanctuary, except that the
government wants to encourage regulated tourist activity in these
ecologically valuable areas.
Do You Know?
India got its first terrestrial national park in 1936, it was
only in 1980 that the Marine National Park in Gujarat, the
first of its kind, came into being. The others were created between
1983-97 - the last one was Gahirmatha, in 1997 .
