The Tamil Nadu State Assembly on September 4, 2021 declared 500 sq.km of the biodiversity-rich waters in the Palk Bay as India’s first dugong conservation reserve.
- The dugong reserve will span the northern part of the Palk Bay from Adiramapattinam to Amapattinam.
- The population of dugongs, as known as sea cows, in Indian waters has been dropping to dangerous levels.
- Studies have revealed that the proposed conservation reserve supports several globally important species such as the highly-threatened whale shark, sea horses, green and hawksbill sea turtles, dolphins and sacred chanks.
About Dugongs
- Dugong is the only herbivorous marine mammal on earth that feeds exclusively on seagrass.
- It consumes 40kg of seagrass daily and helps in the growth of fresh vegetation. In the absence of dugongs, seagrass will grow densely and fish will not come to lay eggs.
- The dugong is a species of sea cow found throughout the warm latitudes of the Indian and western Pacific Oceans.
- According to Wildlife Institute of India (WII) estimates, only 200-250 Dugongs are left in the wild, of which 150 are found in the Palk Bay and Gulf of Mannar in Tamil Nadu, among the last surviving natural habitats for dugongs in the world.
- Unlike the closely related manatees, the dugong never enters freshwater and is therefore the only exclusively marine mammal that is herbivorous.
