{"id":49286,"date":"2025-07-25T21:05:09","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T15:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=49286"},"modified":"2025-07-31T15:08:34","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T09:38:34","slug":"coral-cover-lakshadweep-50-percent-reduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-07-2025\/coral-cover-lakshadweep-50-percent-reduction","title":{"rendered":"Coral Cover in Lakshadweep Saw a 50% Reduction: Study"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS3\/ Biodiversity and Conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>A study revealed that corals in the <strong>Lakshadweep archipelago have declined to half of what they were in 1998.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Over 24 years, coral cover declined from<strong> 37.24% to 19.6%<\/strong>, reflecting a roughly 50% reduction from the 1998 baseline.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are Corals?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Corals are <strong>invertebrates <\/strong>that belong to a large group of animals called <strong>Cnidaria<\/strong>.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Corals are formed by <strong>multiple small, soft organisms known as polyps.<\/strong>&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They secrete a<strong> rocky chalk-like (calcium carbonate) exoskeleton<\/strong> around themselves for protection.&nbsp;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/blog\/coral-reefs\/\">Coral reefs<\/a><\/strong> are therefore created by <strong>millions of tiny polyps forming large carbonate structures.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Appearance: <\/strong>Corals range in colour from <strong>red to purple and even blue,<\/strong> but are most commonly shades of<strong> brown and green.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Coral are bright and colorful because of microscopic algae called <strong>zooxanthellae<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>There are three types of coral reefs \u2013<\/strong> fringing reefs, barrier reefs and atolls.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Fringing reefs <strong>form along shorelines, barrier reefs form in open water <\/strong>and <strong>atolls are circular reefs <\/strong>that have formed around <strong>sunken volcanoes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Coral reefs in India: <\/strong>Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Andaman &amp; Nicobar, Lakshadweep Island and Malvan.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Significance:<\/strong> They provide food, shelter, resting and breeding grounds to a quarter of all marine life, acting as nurseries and refuges to protect critical biodiversity.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They also support more than 1 billion people living in coastal regions around the world by providing food, livelihoods and recreation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Reasons for Coral Bleaching<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Marine Heatwaves &amp; Climate Change:<\/strong> Rising sea surface temperatures disrupt the symbiotic relationship between corals and algae, causing mass bleaching and mortality.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ocean Acidification:<\/strong> Increased CO\u2082 dissolving into oceans reduces water pH, making it harder for corals to grow skeletons.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pollution:<\/strong> Runoff from land\u2014containing fertilizers, pesticides, and heavy metals like lead\u2014damages coral health and resilience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Physical Disturbance:<\/strong> Coastal development, unsustainable fishing, sedimentation, and coral mining physically damage or smother reefs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Overfishing: <\/strong>Reduces fish populations that control algae growth on reefs, further degrading coral environments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Can corals recover from bleaching?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Corals can recover from bleaching over time, but<strong> only if temperatures drop and conditions return to normal.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>When this happens, the <strong>algae returns<\/strong> and the corals gradually regain their health.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/karnataka\/24-year-study-reveals-that-coral-cover-in-lakshadweep-saw-50-reduction\/article69849787.ece\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>TH<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">A study revealed that corals in the Lakshadweep archipelago have declined to half of what they were in 1998.<\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<h3><strong>What are Corals?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Corals are invertebrates that belong to a large group of animals called Cnidaria.<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Corals are formed by multiple small, soft organisms known as polyps.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">They secrete a rocky chalk-like (calcium carbonate) exoskeleton around themselves for protection.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\">Coral reefs are therefore created by millions of tiny polyps forming large carbonate structures.<\/li>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/25-07-2025\/coral-cover-lakshadweep-50-percent-reduction\" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read\u00a0More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49286"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49838,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49286\/revisions\/49838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}