Mudflats or mud flats, also known as tidal flats or, in Ireland, slob or slobs, are coastal wetlands that form in intertidal areas where sediments have been deposited by tides or rivers. A global analysis published in 2019 suggested that tidal flat ecosystems are as extensive globally as mangroves, covering at least 127,921 km2 (49,391 sq mi) of the Earth's surface. They are found in sheltered areas such as bays, bayous, lagoons, and estuaries; they are also seen in freshwater lakes and salty lakes alike, wherein many rivers and creeks end. Mudflats may be viewed geologically as exposed layers of bay mud, resulting from deposition of estuarine silts, clays and aquatic animal detritus. Most of the sediment within a mudflat is within the intertidal zone, and thus the flat is submerged and exposed approximately twice daily.
The Gulf of Mannar is a large shallow bay forming part of the Laccadive Sea in the Indian Ocean with an average depth of 5.8 m (19 ft). It lies between the southeastern tip of India and the west coast of Sri Lanka, in the Coromandel Coast region. The chain of low islands and reefs known as Ram Sethu, which includes Mannar Island, separates the Gulf of Mannar from Palk Bay, which lies to the north between India and Sri Lanka. The estuaries of Thamirabarani River and Vaippar River of South India and the Malvathu Oya of Sri Lanka drain into the Gulf. The dugong is found here.
Pulicat Lake is the second largest brackish water lagoon in India,, measuring 759 square kilometres (293 sq mi). Major part of the lagoon comes under the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. The lagoon is one of three important wetlands that attracts northeast monsoon rain clouds during the October to December season. The lagoon comprises the following regions: Pulicat Lake, Marshy/Wetland Land Region (AP), Venadu Reserve Forest (AP), and Pernadu Reserve Forest (AP). The lagoon was cut across in the middle by the Sriharikota Link Road, which divided the water body into lagoon and marshy land. The lagoon encompasses the Pulicat Lake Bird Sanctuary. The barrier island of Sriharikota separates the lagoon from the Bay of Bengal and is home to the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Chilika Lake is a brackish water lagoon, spread over the Puri, Khordha and Ganjam districts of Odisha state on the east coast of India, at the mouth of the Daya River, flowing into the Bay of Bengal, covering an area of over 1,100 square kilometres (420 sq mi). It is the biggest lake in India after Vembanad Lake. This lake is the largest coastal lagoon in India and the largest brackish water lagoon in the world after The New Caledonian barrier reef. It has been listed as a tentative UNESCO World Heritage site. Its salinity varies by region, from nearly freshwater where rivers flow in, to oceanic salinity levels due to tidal influx.
The Sundarbans National Park is a national park, tiger reserve and biosphere reserve in West Bengal, India. It is part of the Sundarbans on the Ganges Delta and adjacent to the Sundarban Reserve Forest in Bangladesh. It is located to south-west of the Bangladesh. The delta is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger. It is also home to a variety of bird, reptile and invertebrate species, including the salt-water crocodile. The present Sundarban National Park was declared as the core area of Sundarban Tiger Reserve in 1973 and a wildlife sanctuary in 1977. On 4 May 1984 it was declared a national park. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site inscribed in 1987, and it has been designated as a Ramsar site since 2019. It is considered as a World Network of Biosphere Reserve from 1989.
Kodiakkarai also called Point Calimere or Cape Calimere, is a low headland of the Coromandel Coast, in the Nagapattinam district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The Cape is located about 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south of Vedaranyam in the delta region of the Cauvery River, and marks a nearly right-angle turn in the coastline. The antiquity of the area is evidenced by the Kodi Kuzhagar temple built during the Chola period, and a Chola lighthouse, which was destroyed in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Point Calimere Wildlife and Bird Sanctuary (PCWBS) is a 21.47-square-kilometre (8.29 sq mi) protected area in Tamil Nadu, South India along the Palk Strait where it meets the Bay of Bengal at Point Calimere (Tamil: கோடியக்கரை Kodiakkarai) at the southeastern tip of Nagapattinam District. The sanctuary was created in 1967 for conservation of the least concern blackbuck antelope, an endemic mammal species of India. It is famous for large congregations of waterbirds, especially greater flamingos. International name: Point Calimere Wildlife Sanctuary, IBA Code: IN275, Criteria: A1, A4i, A4iii. The 7-square-kilometre (2.7 sq mi) core area of this sanctuary has been proposed as a National Park
Muthupettai is a town in the Thiruvarur district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is also known as Pearlpet. Muthupet comes under the Thiruthuraipoondi assembly constituency which elects a member to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly every five years. The current member of the legislative assembly (MLA) is Marimuthu of the Communist Party of India, a part of the Nagapattinam, which elects its member of parliament (MP) every five years. The Muthupet city in-town panchayat was constituted in 1962. The town comes under the administrative territory of the Thiruvarur District. It extends over an area of 12.80 km2.
Needamangalam (Nidamangalam) formerly Yamunambalpuram, is a town panchayat in Thiruvarur district in the Cauvery Delta of Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Needamangalam was originally part of composite Tanjore District during British Raj until 1997 AD. In the 18th and 19th century, it was also called Yamunambalpuram. Needamangalam is the headquarters of the Needamangalam Taluk. The town is located 20 km east of Thanjavur, 80 km east of Tiruchirappalli and 318 km south of Chennai. Needamangalam is a junction for two busy highways, (i) National Highway 67 is a National Highway in Southern Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka that runs from Nagapattinam, a sea-side town in Tamil Nadu to Gundlupet, Karnataka (ii) State Highway SH-66 connecting Kumbakonam with Adirampattinam via Mannargudi in Cauvery Delta.
East Coast Road (ECR), combination of SH-49, NH-332A, NH-32, officially known as Mutthamizh Arignar Kalaignar Road, is a two-lane highway in Tamil Nadu, India, built along the coast of the Bay of Bengal connecting Tamil Nadu's state capital city Chennai with Kanyakumari via Puducherry, Cuddalore, Chidambaram, Sirkali, Thirukkadaiyur, Tharangambadi, Karaikal, Nagore, Nagapattinam, Thiruthuraipoondi, Muthupet, Adirampattinam, Manora, Manamelkudi, Mimisal, Ramanathapuram, Thoothukudi, Tiruchendur, Uvari, Kudankulam. The total length of the road is about 777 km between Chennai and Kanyakumari.
Jaffna Lagoon is a large lagoon off Jaffna District and Kilinochchi District, northern Sri Lanka. The lagoon is surrounded by the densely populated Jaffna Peninsula containing palmyra palms, coconut plantations, and rice paddies. There are numerous fishing villages and some salt pans. The lagoon has extensive mudflats, seagrass beds and some mangroves. The lagoon attracts a wide variety of water birds including American flamingoes, ducks, gulls, terns and other shorebirds.
The Barker Inlet is a tidal inlet of the Gulf St Vincent in Adelaide, South Australia, named after Captain Collet Barker who first sighted it in 1831. It contains one of the southernmost mangrove forests in the world, a dolphin sanctuary, seagrass meadows and is an important fish and shellfish breeding ground. The inlet separates Torrens Island and Garden Island from the mainland to the east, and is characterised by a network of tidal creeks, artificially deepened channels, and wide mudflats. The extensive belt of mangroves are bordered by samphire saltmarsh flats and low-lying sand dunes.
Ennore, also spelt Eṇṇūr, is a neighbourhood in Chennai, India. Ennore is situated on a peninsula and is bounded by the Korttalaiyar River, Ennore Creek and the Bay of Bengal. The creek separates south Ennore from the north Ennore which covers major portions of North Chennai Thermal Power Station and Ennore Port. The neighbourhood is served by Ennore railway station. Over the years Ennore has become the hub of a range of industrial projects, mainly thermal power stations, fertilizer factories, industrial ports and coal yards.
Classification of wetlands has been a problematical task, with the commonly accepted definition of what constitutes a wetland being among the major difficulties. A number of national wetland classifications exist. In the 1970s, the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance introduced a first attempt to establish an internationally acceptable wetland classification scheme.
Odisha, a state in eastern India, is extremely diverse and gives the state abundance of natural beauty and wildlife. The districts in the interior are thickly covered by tropical moist deciduous and tropical dry deciduous forests. The hills, plateaus and isolated areas of the northeastern part of the state are covered by the tropical moist deciduous forests whereas the dry deciduous forests are located in the southwest region of the state. Some of the trees which grow in abundance in Odisha are bamboo, teak, rosewood, sal, piasal, sanghvan and haldi. There are 479 species of birds, 86 species of mammals, 19 species of amphibians and 110 species of reptiles present in Odisha. The state is also an important habitat for the endangered olive ridley turtles and Irrawaddy dolphins. Koraput district of southern Odisha has been identified by Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of UN as Global Agricultural Heritage site which is among only other three sites in the world. Other sites are in Peru, China and Philippines.
Needamangalam Taluk is a taluk in Thiruvarur district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The headquarters of the taluk is the town of Needamangalam.
The Ord River floodplain is the floodplain of the lower Ord River in the Shire of Wyndham-East Kimberley, in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. It lies within the Victoria Bonaparte IBRA bioregion and contains river, seasonal creek, tidal mudflat and floodplain wetlands, with extensive stands of mangroves, that support saltwater crocodiles and many waterbirds. It is recognised as an internationally important wetland area, with 1,384 square kilometres (534 sq mi) of it designated on 7 June 1990 as Ramsar Site 477 under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.
The East African coral coast is a marine ecoregion along the eastern coast of Africa. It extends along the coasts of Kenya, Tanzania, and northern Mozambique, from Lamu in Kenya to Angoche in Mozambique. It adjoins the Northern Monsoon Current Coast ecoregion to the north, and the Bight of Sofala/Swamp Coast ecoregion to the south.
Sri Lanka is a relatively small continental island, it exhibits a remarkable diversity of forest types, which are among the biologically one of richest forests in Asia. In these forests plant species show extraordinary patterns of localized distribution. Sri Lanka's forest became one of highest density of species diversity in the world. Sri Lanka natural forest cover about 12,493 km2 29.46% According to the National Red List said, Sri Lanka counts 253 land species, 245 species of butterflies, 240 birds, 211 reptiles, 748 evaluated vertebrates and 1,492 invertebrates. Forest coverage is about 70% tropical dry monsoon forests, 15% tropical moist monsoon forests and 5% tropical lower montane forests. By the dawn of the 19th century, Sri Lanka's forest cover was estimated at up to 70% of the total land area. Since then, the forest cover has decreased progressively over time. Significant loss of Sri Lanka's forest cover was first reported in the 19th century, with the introduction of plantation agricultural crops such as tea and vegetables. Commercial timber extraction policy of colonial rulers (British colonial time also led to clearing of forests in the dry zone. Irrigation development and agricultural expansions have been identified as key drivers of forest cover change.
