Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 2.1
Location of
Andaman and Nicobar
Islands
Bunt (
1992
), 24 million ha by Twilley et al. (
1992
), 14-15 million ha by Schwam-
born and Saint-Paul (
1996
) and above 18 million ha by Spalding (
1997
). The most
recent estimate by Wilkie and Fortuna (
2003
) suggests that mangroves cover an
area of about 14.65 million ha. In India, distribution of mangroves spreads across
all the nine coastal states, Union Territories (UTs) of Pondicherry, Daman-Diu and
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (ANI). Figure
2.2
shows State/UTs-wise mangrove
availability in India. There have been different estimates of mangroves by different
authors. Khan (
1957
) estimated area under mangroves of Indian coast as 0.55 mil-
lion ha, Sidhu (
1963
) as 0.68 million ha and Blasco (
1977
) as 0.36 million ha. These
estimates did not include mangroves of Daman-Diu, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and
Pondicherry. Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organisation under the Ministry of
Environment and Forests, Government of India, is assessing the forest cover of
the country including that of mangroves on biennial basis since 1987. These as-
sessments are based on interpretation of satellite data followed by limited ground
verification. According to the latest estimate of the FSI (
2009
), total area under
mangrove vegetation in India is 4,639 km
2
. Out of this, 615 km
2
area (i.e. 20 %
of the total mangrove area of the Indian territory) is in ANI. In Andaman district,
the area under mangroves is 612 km
2
, while in Nicobar district mangroves occupy
