DOI: 10.36347/sajb.2015.v03i07.008

Pages: 616-617

India has large coastal wetlands which cover an area of over 40,230 km2. Among various types of marine ecosystems, tidal mudflats, mangroves, estuaries, lagoons, beaches, marshes, vegetated wetlands and coral reefs have a major share. The double threats of development and overexploitation of the coastal and marine resources have led to severe development pressures along the coastal areas world over. This has resulted in substantial loss to coastal wetlands, mangroves, forests, seagrass beds, coral reefs, biodiversity and increased coastal erosion and so on. Researchers globally are analyzing the species diversity of the wetlands to determine its pollution status. They are utilizing various species diversity indexes such as Shannon - Weiner, Margalef and Goodnight. Scientist like Staub and You Jia have given a table where they have correlated the index value with pollution and so these tables can be utilized to exactly determine the pollution status of any wetland area rather than just assumptive conclusion.