Ahmadabad, India: The Gujarat state’s Environment and Forests Minister, Mangubhai Patel, released a “Coral Atlas of Gujarat State” and launched a website, www.geciczmp.com, on the Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project (ICZMP).
The atlas has been prepared by officials from the Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) and Bhaskaracharya Institute for Space Application and Geo-Informatics (BISAG). The atlas was drawn up after maps were procured from the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), Hyderabad, India. Image processing was then carried out, followed by ground verifications.
The atlas is expected to serve as the first baseline data that could be used to plan coastal management under the ICZMP, which is funded by the World Bank. The Atlas shows the existence of corals off the coasts of six districts as well as Diu.
The atlas maps corals along the state’s 1,660-km coastline. It throws new light on the existence of corals in areas outside the Gulf of Kutch, notably off the coasts of Valsad and scattered areas off Saurashtra.
The website is dedicated to providing information regarding the implementation of the ICZMP. It contains information about the project and also directs users on how they can get involved.
Source: Indian Express
