ECOLOGICAL BENEFITS OF MANGROVE

Mangrove forests are among the most productive and biologically important ecosystems because they provide goods and services to human society. The word "Mangrove" is considered to be a combination of the Portuguese word "Mangue" and the English word "grove". Mangroves are salt-tolerant plants of tropical and subtropical intertidal regions of the world. The specific regions where these plants occur are termed as 'mangrove ecosystem'. The distribution of mangrove ecosystem on Indian coastlines indicates that the Sundarban mangroves occupy very large area followed by Andaman-Nicobar Islands and Gulf of Kutch in Gujarat. Rest of the mangrove ecosystems are comparatively smaller. However, good number of studies has been carried out in almost all ecosystems. Over 1600 plant and 3700 animal species have been identified from these areas.