A study on coastal resources of Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park, Wandoor, Andaman and Nicobar islands using remote sensing and GIS
Student name: Ms Lakshmi P
Guide: Dr Nithiyanandam Yogeswaran
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Science and Technology, New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr U. K.Sharma
Abstract: Coastal resources are very much important to support life on our planet. The Indian coast is
bestowed with wide range of coastal ecosystems. Coastal areas includes a wide range of
ecosystems like mangroves, coral reefs, seagrasses, sandy beaches etc. Coastal areas are facing
threats from both the natural and anthropogenic disturbances such as coastal erosion, sea level
variations, tourism etc. Remote sensing and GIS techniques are useful to provide practical and
coast efficient solutions for environmental protection and management that can be easily
maintained and operated. The present study is carried out to delineate the ecologically important
coastal resources and shoreline changes of Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park (MGMNP),
Wandoor in Andaman and Nicobar islands. The SOI toposheet of 1979 and 1986, Resourcesat
LISS-III data of the year 2006, Landsat 5 TM data of the year 2010 and Landsat 8 OLI_TIRS
satellite data of the year 2014 were used to delineate the coastal resources and shoreline
changes. Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park shows a unique combination of both the forest
and marine ecosystems in the form of tropical wet evergreen, moist deciduous, lush mangrove
forest growing in inter-tidal zone next to the dense forests and beautiful, diverse and rich
fringing coral reefs occurring in the marine environment of the park. The result reveals that
there is a continuous decrease in mangrove forest and an increase in area of sparse mangrove
forest area, at the same time there is a continuous increase in the production of healthy coral
reefs over the study area. In the case of shoreline mapping the study is divided into sections and
the result shows that erosion has happened in the east and west coast of the islands in the Marine
National Park. The study found that the satellite imageries are very useful in delineating the
different coastal resources and shoreline changes. It has also been found that there is a lot of
destruction happened to the coastal ecosystems in the marine national park after the Tsunami. A
careful assessment of changes that occurred in the coastal ecosystems of Marine National Park
were identified and were suggested for the conservation and management of these rich and
highly productive resources.
Keywords: Coastal resources, Shoreline change, Remote sensing, GIS, Ecosystem, Andaman
and Nicobar Islands.
