Mahatma Gandhi Marine National Park is a national park of India

National parks of India

This is a list of all national parks of India. India's first national park was established in 1936 as Hailey National Park, now known as Jim Corbett National Park. By 1970, India only had five national parks...

 in Wandoor

Wandoor

Wandoor is a small town in Malppuram district of Kerala, India at. It is located near to Manjeri.The town is fast growing thanks to hundreds of NRIs...

 on the Andaman Islands

Andaman Islands

The Andaman Islands are a group of Indian Ocean archipelagic islands in the Bay of Bengal between India to the west, and Burma , to the north and east...

. Situated 29 km. from Port Blair

Port Blair

Port Blair is the largest town and a municipal council in Andaman district in the Andaman Islands and the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a union territory of India...

, the park covers 281.5 km² made up of 15 islands and the open sea creeks running through the area. There is a chance for ecotourism

Ecotourism

Ecotourism is a form of tourism visiting fragile, pristine, and usually protected areas, intended as a low impact and often small scale alternative to standard commercial tourism...

 on the islands Jolly Boys and Red Skin which are open during some seasons offering glass bottom boat

Glass bottom boat

A glass bottom boat is a boat with sections of glass, or other suitable transparent material, below the waterline allowing passengers to observe the underwater environment from within the boat. The view through the glass bottom is better than simply looking into the water from above, because one...

s, scuba diving

Scuba diving

Scuba diving is a form of underwater diving in which a diver uses a scuba set to breathe underwater....

 and snorkeling

Snorkeling

Snorkeling is the practice of swimming on or through a body of water while equipped with a diving mask, a shaped tube called a snorkel, and usually swimfins. In cooler waters, a wetsuit may also be worn...

 as a way to see the park's coral reef

Coral reef

Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...

s and marine life.

History

The park was created 24 May 1983 under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972

Wildlife Protection Act of 1972

The Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 refers to a sweeping package of legislation enacted in 1972 by the Government of India. Before 1972, India only had five designated national parks...

 to protect marine life such as the coral

Coral

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...

s and nesting sea turtle

Sea turtle

Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...

s prevalent in the area. It was placed under the protection of the Chief Wildlife Warden of the forest department of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The islands are uninhabited land although, per the 1981 census, there is a population of 3000 living in 8 adjacent villages.

Islands

• Alexandra
• Bell
• Boat
• Chester
• Grub
• Hobday
• Jolly Boys
• Malay
• Pluto
• Red Skin
• Riflemen
• Rutland
  Rutland Island
  Rutland Island is an island located across the Macpherson Strait from South Andaman Island. As one of the Andaman Islands, Rutland I forms the southernmost main island of the closely situated Great Andaman archipelago. It is separated from Little Andaman by the Duncan Passage. The island spans an...
  
   (parts of it)
• Snob
• Tarmugli (largest island)
• Twins

Ecosystems

Most of the coral reefs in the park are fringing reef

Fringing reef

A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reefs recognized by most coral reef scientists. It is distinguished from the other two main types in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone or none at all...

s. The type and composition of vegetation varies from island to island. Most notably there you can see a difference between the tourist islands which suffer more anthropocentric change and others which do not. There are also some islands more isolated or protected from the effects of weather in the Bay of Bengal

Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal , the largest bay in the world, forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. It resembles a triangle in shape, and is bordered mostly by the Eastern Coast of India, southern coast of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to the west and Burma and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the...

. Tarmugli, the largest island, is covered with thick mangrove

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

 vegetation, sand

Sand

Sand is a naturally occurring granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles.The composition of sand is highly variable, depending on the local rock sources and conditions, but the most common constituent of sand in inland continental settings and non-tropical coastal...

 covered beaches, uprooted trees and sheet rocks. Twins is an important breeding ground for turtles within the park.