Conservation and Management of Coastal Ecosystem by Local Communities: an Experience from India

Set apart from the rest of Asia by the supreme continental wall of the Himalayas, the Indian subcontinent touches three large bodies of water and is immediately recognizable on any world map. It is the huge, terrestrial beak between Africa and Indonesia. India is bounded in the southwest by the Arabian Sea, to the southeast by the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean to the south. India has a land frontier of 15,200 km (9,445 mi) and a coastline of 7,517 km (4,671 mi). India reaches its peninsular tip with South India, which begins with the Deccan in the north and ends with Cape Comorin. The states in South India are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala. The southeast coast, mirroring the west, also rests snugly beneath a mountain range-the Eastern Ghats. Having a coastline of over 7,000 kilometres (4,350 mi), most of India lies on a peninsula in Southern Asia that protrudes into the Indian Ocean. The Western Ghats or Sahyadri Mountains run along the western edge of India's Deccan Plateau, and separate it from a narrow coastal plain along the Arabian Sea. The range starts south of the Tapti River near the Gujarat Maharashtra border, and runs approximately 1,600 km (994 mi) across the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, almost to the southern tip of the Indian peninsula. The average elevation is around 1,000 m (3,281 ft) The Anai Mudi in the Anaimalai Hills at 2,695 m (8,842 ft) in Kerala is the highest peak in the Western Ghats. The Eastern Ghats are a discontinuous range of mountains, which have been eroded and cut through by the major rivers of southern India. These mountain ranges extend from West Bengal in the north passing through Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the south. They run parallel to the Bay of Bengal. Though not as high as the Western Ghats, some of its peaks are over 1,000 m (3,281 ft) in height. The Eastern Ghats and the Western Ghats meets at the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu. The Western Coastal Plain is a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the Western Ghats and the Arabian Sea. This region begins in Gujarat in the north and extends across the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala. The plains are narrow, and range from 50 to 100 km (30 to 60 miles) in width. There are cases of biodiversity conservation by coastal communities in the state of Karnataka. In these areas local communities are an integral part of the conservation since they believe strongly that their livelihoods depend on the ecosystem around them and they worship the ecosystem.