Neglect, climate change, and rapid development are putting unique and largely undocumented ecosystems like rare marine life and vast mangroves at risk, say marine biologists at the East Coast Conservation Team
There is an alarming loss of unique biodiversity along India’s East Coast and the Eastern Ghats hills that run almost parallel to it, caution scientists, who say the region is neglected both in terms of research and conservation efforts by policymakers.
India’s East Coast’s inter-tidal zone is strewn with examples of unique marine animals. It is a breeding ground and nursery for marine species that represent key stages in the evolutionary cycle, say marine biologists at the East Coast Conservation Team (ECCT), Visakhapatnam. These range from sponges to sea anemones, hydroids, soft corals, hard corals, flatworms, annelids, crabs, Elysia, octopus, sea spurts and fishes. The Andhra coast has unique biodiversity with many endemic invertebrate species, according to ECCT scientists.
The team has come across several marine curiosities, from sponges that have multiple cells but no nervous system, to others with a nervous system but no brain-like organ, says ECCT scientist Priyanka Vedula. “We also see flatworms that are among the first to develop a brain-like nerve ring and can actually process information,” she adds.
Other unique marine species include sea squirts, which may have been ancestors of modern fish and show several advanced features of a fish, adds her colleague Deepu Visweswar. The team also came across a sea slug that was last spotted 160 years ago.
And until a publication by the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) in 2025, coral reef presence in Andhra Pradesh was also not known. “With more efforts across marine ecosystems, we have the potential to document and discover more, and hence also protect many species in the area,” Visweswar.
Visakhapatnam and much of the Andhra Pradesh coast is a ‘huge dark spot’ with respect to biodiversity, but there is risk of much of the undocumented species getting lost due to climate change and infrastructure development, the ECCT team says.
East Coast mangroves’ rich biodiversity
The east coast is also home to some of the world’s biggest and diverse mangroves, which are an important ecosystem by themselves. The best known are the Sundarbans mangroves, a UNESCO World Heritage site that spans India’s and Bangladesh’s Gangetic delta.
The Sundarbans provides a habitat for globally endangered fishing cats, Gangetic dolphins, estuarine crocodiles, horseshoe crabs, water monitor lizards, and river terrapins, says R Balasubramanian, senior fellow at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai.
Physical map of India, showing the different topographical regions.
India has two globally threatened mangrove species, out of a total of 11 species listed under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, says Balasubramanian. In addition, there is little data on two more mangrove species, while some mangrove species such as Rhizophora annamalayana and Heritiera kanikensis are ‘near threatened’.
The Andhra coast is also home to the Coringa mangrove forest, India’s third largest mangrove, as well as seagrass meadows along the East Godavari river delta off the Bay of Bengal coast.
The Eastern Ghats
There are some unique mammals along the eastern Ghats, a chain of fragmented hills ranges, stretching from the Mahanadi River valley in Odisha in the north to the Sirumalai Hills in Tamil Nadu in the south. The hills run roughly parallel to India’s east coast stretching over 1,600km, and spread over an area of more than 75,000 square kms.
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The Eastern Ghats are the neglected older cousins of the Himalayas and the Western Ghats which are recognised as global biodiversity hotspots and have, therefore, received more attention from Indian researchers and policy makers alike regarding biodiversity studies and conservation efforts.
The Eastern Ghats represent one of India’s most complex and little-understood mountain systems, and have a much older geological origin and different ecological histories from the Western Ghats, says scientists. Much of its diversity remains poorly documented, and is increasingly vulnerable to habitat loss, fragmentation and climate change.
‘One of the least studied areas for birds’
A report by a team from the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), and the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and The Environment (ATREE), both in Bengaluru, shows that Papikonda National Park is rich in mammal diversity, especially in well-forested patches. Areas with dry-deciduous habitats, in particular, supported the highest species richness, specially of primates and small carnivores.
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Over 145 species of birds were recorded, according to a report prepared by the CWS and ATREE after a 2014 survey of Visakhapatnam and East Godavari districts, including two species listed as ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN: the Malabar Pied Hornbill and Alexandrine Parakeet. Other unique species include some uncommon bulbuls such as the red-vented bulbul, and red-whiskered bulbul; the plum-headed parakeet, the spotted dove, and brown-headed Barbet.
The Malabar Pied Hornbill is among the two species listed as ‘near threatened’ by the IUCN, the other being Alexandrine Parakeet.
Some species such as the Abbot’s babbler reported in earlier surveys by other scientists were not sighted. Rapid forest conversion around the national park has particularly affected the dry deciduous forests spread across lower heights below 200 m, especially along the Godavari River, says Vikram Aditya, principal scientist at CWS. “The rapid forest conversion occurring in the northern Eastern Ghats is a major threat to mammal populations in the region,” he adds.
Unlike the Western Ghats and the Himalayas that continue to be surveyed today, Eastern Ghats has received relatively scant attention, says Aditya. Historically, the northern Eastern Ghats has been recognised as one of the least studied areas for birds in the Indian region, he adds.
More baseline research needed
Conservation efforts have traditionally focused on biodiversity hotspots and other priority landscapes, says Vikram Aditya. However, large areas outside priority sites have high conservation value but are neglected landscapes, he says. “The Eastern Ghats of India is an unexplored forest landscape of high conservation value with several endemic and threatened species reported, and is also home to many indigenous forest-dwelling communities,” he says. “However, it remains a neglected area for conservation and only 3.53% of this landscape is protected.”
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The North Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh has been poorly surveyed for its rich birds diversity compared to other regions. The region has a large protected area, Papikonda National Park, and even larger area of reserve forests that are in fairly good condition, says Aditya. “However, forest fragmentation due to encroachments, road building and potential submergence due to the construction of a number of dams are increasing. The region is also experiencing severe poaching of both birds and mammals and, therefore, it has become imperative that a comprehensive survey of birds across various habitats be done at the earliest,” he says.
The ECCT fears that unbridled construction and development projects could ruin the east coast’s rich biodiversity before one even knows what has been lost. “What happened with the Eastern Ghats should not be repeated in the East Coast,” he cautions. More baseline research is needed and more people should come forward for conservation initiatives in the area to protect our natural heritage and biodiversity, its scientists say.
