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Language: English
From the introduction:
""The Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are endowed with a rich biodiversity in the various ecosystems in both the terrestrial and marine environments. Because of long temporal and spatial separation, the terrestrial fauna and flora shows a greater percentage of endemics. Due to the presence of these special faunal and floral elements and rich coral beds with their associated fauna, several Protected Areas were declared for conservation of the varied habitats and their biodiversity. To date there are 96 sanctuaries, nine National Parks including two Marine National Parks and a Biosphere Reserve. The North Button Island, Middle Button Island and South Button Island were designated as National Parks based on preliminary observations and assessments. However, there are no comprehensive accounts of the fauna, particularly of the marine environment around the Protected Areas. The three sanctuaries of North-, Middle- and South Button Islands located at the northern end of the Ritchie's Archipelago are one such group. There are also many other remote areas in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago that have not been thoroughly explored for their biological diversity and importance. Their remoteness, lack of easy accessibility and tiny size of many islands, has not evoked thr interest they deserve, or permitted attempts to study their faunal wealth and ecology.
Pande et al. (1991) gave a cursory account of the fauna and Chaudhari (1987 cited by Pande et al. 1991) of the flora of the forests of the Protected Areas. However, in many cases the information on the marine fauna of these islands is meagre. A comprehensive survey of these islands for their ecology and faunal wealth will considerably help in the conservation of the fragile ecosystems, and also create awareness amongst people of their importance. Dr. Kailash Chandra and his team made a general survey of these National Parks in March 1996. Part of the information is from his unpublished tour report. Later an underwater faunistic survey of the marine ecosystem of these islands was undertaken by one of us (DVR) during January 2003 and March 2004. The following account based on the tour report of Dr. Chandra and the later surveys {DVR) is limited to field identification, particularly of marine fauna, because of restrictions to collect important groups, which are under Wildlife Schedules. Very few faunal representatives were collected and the main focus was given to ecological observations by snorkeling. Underwater videography was made use of for inventorying various faunal components like corals etc., which could not be collected. The account is by no means complete or exhaustive, as there is still much scope to study deeper coastal areas."
