What are Corals? What is coral bleaching? Why are coral reefs important? What poses a threat to coral reefs? How are they protected in India?
By Srirangam Sriram, Sriram's IAS, New Delhi.
Coral polyps are tiny, soft-bodied organisms. At their base is a hard, protective limestone skeleton called a calicle, which forms the structure of coral reefs. Reefs begin when a polyp attaches itself to a rock on the seafloor, then divides, or buds, into thousands of clones. The polyp calicles connect to one another, creating a colony that acts as a single organism. As colonies grow over hundreds and thousands of years, they join with other colonies and become reefs. Some of the coral reefs on the planet today began growing over 50 million years ago.
Coral bleaching
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.
Why are coral reefs important?
Coral bleaching
When corals are stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, they expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn completely white.
Why are coral reefs important?
- Coral reefs teem with life, covering less than 1 % of the ocean floor, but supporting about 25 % of all marine creatures.
- Coral reefs also act as ‘wave breaks’ between the sea and the coastline and minimise the impact of sea erosion.
Threat to coral reefs
However, threats to their existence abound, and scientists estimate that human factors—such as pollution, global warming, and sedimentation—are threatening large swaths of the world's reefs.
Protection in India
The only law that explicitly outlaws coral mining is the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification 1991. The CRZ-notification of 1991 issued under the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 places restrictions on industries, operations and processes in the CPZ areas.
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