Environmental change-induced coral degradation in India: implications for human security

Abstract

India, being one of the most ecologically diverse countries in the world, is at the same time considered one of the most vulnerable countries, in relation to the adverse effects of climate change. One of the most threatened bio-geomorphologic features of India is its coral reefs; which are increasingly being affected by rising surface sea temperatures, ocean acidification and other direct/indirect impacts of global warming induced climate change. India is home to both fringing reefs (around the islands in the Gulf of Mannar, Gulf of Kachchh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands) and atolls (Lakshadweep). With the gradual unravelling of the geophysical cum geochemical impacts of climate change on these reefs, the security implications -especially on human security- are hard to ignore in a highly uncertain period, called nonetheless as the Anthropocene.