VidBodh AcademyThe art and science of civil services preparation
Student login

Environment › Protected areas and habitats

Marine and coastal ecosystems

Coasts and seas as ecosystems: mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass, estuaries and lagoons, coastal regulation and erosion, marine protected areas and the treaties for the high seas. Prelims has asked what blue carbon is and where India has coral reefs.

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2026: why mangroves matter for climate resilience
  • Prelims 2018: coral reefs
  • Prelims 2016: The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB)
  • Prelims 2014: where India has coral reefs

Showing 2 of 7 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 September 2026.Show all

Mangroves

MISHTI

Copy link to MISHTI

Prelims and Mains

Mangrove roots slow waves and trap sediment, which is why a mangrove belt is counted as coastal defence rather than only as forest, and why a national programme now pays to put it back.

  • MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes) was launched on World Environment Day 2023.
  • It aims to restore about 540 sq km of mangroves.
  • Gujarat was reported close to its MISHTI target at a review in Bhuj in September 2026.
  • A Mangrove GIS (MGIS) Portal was launched at that workshop to monitor the State's mangroves.
  • The Environment Minister released mangrove publications at the workshop and reviewed plantation work in Kachchh the next day.
  • Guneri in Kachchh, Gujarat's first Biodiversity Heritage Site, holds rare mangroves that grow inland, away from the sea.

What changed

  1. 14 Sep 2026

    PIB, 14 Sep 2026: Union Environment Minister visits Great Indian Bustard Habitat in Kachchh, Gujarat; Inaugurates GIB Soft Release Centre, Sayara Van Kavach and reviews Mangrove Plantation Efforts (opens in a new tab)

  2. 13 Sep 2026

    PIB, 13 Sep 2026: Union Environment Minister presides over Workshop on Mangrove Conservation in Bhuj; Releases Key Mangrove Publications and Reviews MISHTI Progress (opens in a new tab)

  3. 10 Jul 2026Update

    • The governing body of the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) extended the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes by three years to 2029 and raised its outlay to ₹600 crore, moving it to a landscape based approach to coastal restoration.

    PIB, 10 Jul 2026: Four new Wildlife and Forestry Conservation Projects for Dolphins, Snow Leopards, Wild Water Buffalo and Indian Rhinoceros approved by GB CAMPA (opens in a new tab)

Pichavaram mangroves

Copy link to Pichavaram mangroves

Prelims and Mains

A forest nobody buys from enters a planning decision only once someone works out what it is worth, and the Total Economic Value of this one in Tamil Nadu has now been worked out.

  • A study put the Total Economic Value of the Pichavaram mangroves at ₹2,485.38 crore.
  • Blue carbon sits in the standing wood and in the waterlogged sediment below, where a lack of oxygen keeps it from rotting away.
  • Mangrove soil therefore holds its carbon only as long as it stays wet and undug.

  • Sediments76%

  • Vegetation24%

Share of carbon stored per hectare at Pichavaram, calculated from the tonnes reported in The Hindu, 3 September 2026

What changed

  1. 3 Sep 2026

    The Hindu, 3 Sep 2026: How valuable are mangroves? Study on Pichavaram ecosystem pegs it at ₹2,485.38 crore (opens in a new tab)

UPSC has asked

  • Prelims 2021: what blue carbon is

Also filed elsewhere