Diversity of Mangrove Ecosystem from Vaitarna Estuary (Palghar), Maharashtra, India

Mangroves are one of the biologically diverse ecosystems in the world, rich in organic matter and nutrients and support very large biomass of flora and fauna. With continuing degradation and destruction of mangroves, there is a critical need to understand the biodiversity of the mangrove ecosystems. The present paper deals with the survey of mangrove species diversity along different sites, i.e. Dativare coast, Vaitarna Bridge and Wadhiv of Vaitarna estuary Maharashtra, India. During this study, 4 species of true mangroves representing 3 genera and 3 families, 5 species of mangrove associates belonging to 4 families, 1 Genus 1 species of mangrove halophytes were recorded from the mangrove ecosystems of Vaitarna estuary (Palghar), Maharashtra.