Mauling Mannar
The Gulf of Mannar region is among the richest marine biological resource regions in the world. The Gulf of Mannar Marine Biosphere Reserve is the first marine biosphere reserve in the southern and south-east Asian region. The Gulf was chosen as a biosphere reserve primarily because of its biological and ecological uniqueness. The Gulf of Mannar National Park constitutes 21 islands, all surrounded by coral reefs. Both the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay have, till date, remained undisturbed by shipping traffic and have nurtured a large number of faunal and floral species.
As per the Union ministry of environment and forests (moef), the Gulf of Mannar has about 3,600 species of flora and fauna. Of these, 377 are endemic to the region. Ecologists fear that locating such a huge project, which requires large amounts of dredging, so close to a biodiversity hotspot might lead to irreparable damage to its biodiversity. "The environmental assessment report completely ignores the marine biodiversity of the region,' says Rodriguez.
Raghupathy of tpt and Sethusamudram Corporation Limited, says that the alignment of the channel is at least 20 km away from the nearest island of the marine national park. We have carefully studied all the environmental aspects and are sure that there will be no adverse impacts both during the construction and operation of the channel,' he says. But experts have other views. "The turbid water caused by the dredging will kill sea grasses like the Halophyla ovata and Cymodocea serrulata on which dugongs