{"id":21829,"date":"2026-07-14T10:31:04","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T05:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=21829"},"modified":"2026-07-14T14:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T08:50:47","slug":"gulf-of-mannar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/gulf-of-mannar\/","title":{"rendered":"Gulf of Mannar"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Gulf of Mannar Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gulf of Mannar has witnessed a steep decline in bird numbers over the last four decades, with overall shorebird abundance dropping by nearly 57%, according to a peer-reviewed study published recently.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Gulf of Mannar<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a<\/span><b> vast shallow bay <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that forms part of the<\/span><b> Laccadive Sea<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the <\/span><b>Indian Ocean.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is located <\/span><b>between southeastern India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>western Sri Lanka.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gulf is 130\u2013275 km wide and 160 km long.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is <\/span><b>bounded <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">to the <\/span><b>northeast by Rameswaram (island), Adam\u2019s (Rama\u2019s) Bridge<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (a chain of shoals), and <\/span><b>Mannar Island.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is<\/span><b> connected to the Palk Bay in the north<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through the <\/span><b>Palk Strait.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It receives several <\/span><b>rivers<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, including the<\/span><b> Tambraparni (India) <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and the<\/span><b> Aruvi (Sri Lanka).<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>port of Tuticorin <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">is on the Indian coast.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The gulf is noted for its <\/span><b>pearl banks and sacred chank<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (a gastropod mollusk).<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Gulf of Mannar <\/b><b>Biodiversity<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Endowed with <\/span><b>three distinct coastal ecosystems<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><b>coral reefs, seagrass beds, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><b>mangroves<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), it is considered<\/span><b> one of the world\u2019s richest regions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">from a marine biodiversity perspective.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are known to be over 4,223 species of flora and fauna in the Gulf of Mannar.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Sea Turtles, sharks, dugongs, and dolphins<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> are regular visitors to the Gulf, and <\/span><b>117 species of hard cora<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">l have been recorded here.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Gulf became a protected national park in 1986, earning the name <\/span><b>Gulf of Mannar National Park.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was designated as a <\/span><b>Biosphere Reserve in 1989<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>first such marine conservation area in India and the South Asian region. <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>News<\/b><strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newindianexpress.com\/states\/tamil-nadu\/2026\/Jul\/10\/57-per-cent-decline-in-migratory-shorebirds-at-gulf-of-mannar-in-last-40-years-study\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">NIE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gulf of Mannar is a vast shallow bay that forms part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean. Read more about Gulf of Mannar, Location, Area, Depth, Latest News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":113158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8683],"class_list":["post-21829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-gulf-of-mannar","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21829"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113204,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21829\/revisions\/113204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}