Chennai: The State government notified India’s first ‘Dugong Conservation Reserve’ in the Palk Bay, covering 448 square kilometres of the coastal waters of Thanjavur and Pudukottai districts in a bid to protect the endangered Dugong species and its marine habitats in the region on Wednesday.
The announcement on the conservation reserve was made by the State government on the floor of the State Assembly on September 3, 2021, an official press release said, adding the GO relating to that was issued by the department of environment, climate change and forests, marking a milestone in the marine conservation history of the country.
‘Dugongs are the largest herbivorous marine mammals in the world thriving primarily on seagrass beds, a major carbon sink of the oceans. Conserving dugongs will help to protect and improve seagrass beds and sequestering more atmospheric carbon,’ the release said.
Since seagrass beds were also the breeding and feeding grounds for many commercially valuable fishes and marine fauna, thousands of fisher families were directly dependent on dugong habitats for their livelihood, it said.
'The coastal communities along Palk Bay understand the need to conserve dugongs and they have been cooperating with the forest department in the conservation efforts,’ it said.
Though dugongs are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wild Life (Protection) Act, 1972, their population is on the decline due to habitat loss. There are only about 240 individuals estimated to be present in the country and the majority is found in the Tamil Nadu coast (Palk Bay).
Notification of the Conservation Reserve will not bring in any new restriction or regulation to the coastal communities but would focus on their participation and cooperation for the conservation efforts.
