Across India’s coasts, from the languid channels of the Sundarbans delta to Mumbai’s stifled creeks, mangroves form a barrier between land and sea. These coastal forests are critical in India’s pursuit of climate resilience, biodiversity conservation, and the empowerment of coastal communities.
However, in the face of urban expansion, climate change, and development, how are India’s mangroves surviving — and who is protecting them?
Mangroves matter
Mangrove swamps are forested wetlands characterised by trees that can tolerate saline water. They serve as natural barriers, protecting coastal communities from cyclones, tidal surges, and erosion. During natural disasters like the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and recurring cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, mangroves have been known to attenuate damage to coastal infrastructure and biodiversity and have saved thousands of lives.
Their role in biodiversity conservation is significant as well. Mangroves provide breeding and nursery grounds for fish, crustaceans, molluscs, and migratory birds. These salt-tolerant forests also store significant amounts of blue carbon (the carbon captured by marine and coastal ecosystems), helping mitigate climate change by trapping carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in their roots and soil.
The mangroves of India cover more than 4,900 sq. km, including in estuaries, deltas, and along the coasts of West Bengal, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Karnataka, among other States. For coastal communities, especially traditional fishers and honey gatherers, mangroves are intimately linked to livelihoods and cultural practices.
Yet they are increasingly threatened by urban expansion, aquaculture, pollution, and changing climate patterns. This isn’t the case in India alone: around the world, more than half of all mangrove ecosystems are at risk of collapse by 2050, according to a recent report from the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In spite of these mounting threats, however, India is also the epicentre of a growing number of inspiring efforts to protect and revive mangrove ecosystems. With the right mix of stewardship, scientific support, and policy attention, they are showing that mangroves can’t only survive: they can thrive.
Mangroves in Tamil Nadu
In recent years, efforts to restore mangroves across Tamil Nadu have seen remarkable progress, driven by a combination of government initiatives, community participation, and scientific planning. Once severely degraded by shrimp farming, industrial pollution, and altered hydrology, the State’s estuaries and coasts are today witnessing a slow but steady comeback.
Under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission and other coastal restoration programmes, the districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, and Cuddalore among others have significantly expanded mangrove cover. As a result, Tamil Nadu nearly doubled its mangrove extent — from 4,500 hectares to more than 9,000 hectares between 2021 and 2024 — and has been leading coastal ecosystem recovery in India.
In early 2017, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai in collaboration with local village committees and the Tamil Nadu Forest Department began a project to restore 115 hectares of degraded mangroves in the Pattuvanachi estuary of Muthupettai. After thorough site assessments and community engagement, the team dug 19 major canals to restore tidal flow. Then team members planted more than 4.3 lakh Avicennia seeds from Muthupettai and 6,000 Rhizophora propagules from Pichavaram, successfully regenerating a once-stagnant landscape into a thriving mangrove forest.
Yet another success story from Tamil Nadu is the restoration of a green belt of mangroves near Buckingham Canal in Kazhipattur in Chennai. Under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission, the Forest Department planted 12,500 mangrove seedlings from five species in 2024 with the help of scientific experts. The restoration involved removing invasive Prosopis juliflora weeds before planting the mangroves, with the goal of restoring Chennai’s natural shield against cyclones and storm surges.
Conservation in Mumbai
In early 2025, Amazon’s Right Now Climate Fund partnered with Hasten Regeneration and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to launch a $1.2 million (Rs 10.3 crore as on July 24, 2025) restoration project along Thane Creek in Mumbai, aimed at reviving essential mangrove forests and mudflats that support migratory flamingos and more than 180 other bird species.
The project combined ecological restoration with urban cleanup: biodegradable barriers called trash booms were installed to intercept plastic pollution, targeting the collection of at least 150 tonnes of plastic over three years. Simultaneously, the initiative has planned to plant about 3.75 lakh mangrove saplings, creating new habitat for flamingos and empowering local communities, especially women, by providing paid employment in planting and maintenance activities.
By focusing both on ecological recovery and socio-economic resilience, this project exemplifies how corporate-backed, nature-based solutions can advance biodiversity protection in India’s rapidly urbanising coastal zones.
Gujarat’s success
The State of Gujarat has become a national leader in mangrove restoration under the Indian government’s Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes scheme, which was launched on World Environment Day 2023.
Under this scheme, Gujarat has planted more than 19,000 hectares of mangroves in two years, surpassing the Central government’s planned five-year target of 54,000 hectares.
The goal of this effort is to rebuild coastal resilience across the Kutch and coastal Saurashtra regions, supporting biodiversity and local livelihoods alike, promoting ecotourism, and contributing to the nation’s blue carbon goals.
Gujarat is already home to 23.6% of India’s mangrove cover and currently an example of how robust planning and strategic coastal mapping can help quickly upscale restoration efforts.
These stories from India’s coastal communities show us that mangrove conservation is not just possible but actually well underway. Such stories of hope must become the norm, not the exception.
As climate change and rampant developmental activities continue to ravage our coasts, the need to protect what remains and restore what is lost has never been more urgent. Mangroves are the first line of defence against storms, and they also shelter fisheries and store carbon.
Priya Ranganathan is a doctoral student and researcher at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bengaluru.
