Jamnagar Marine National Park

In 1980 Gujarat created India’s first Marine National Park spread over an area of nearly 458 square kilometres in the Gulf of Kutch, 30 kilometres from Jamnagar. Here corals come in an amazing variety of shapes and sizes, from the convoluted brain coral to ones that resemble deer antlers. Turtles, shrimp, sponge, eels and sea urchins lurk among the corals and huge schools of fish create a riot of colour. Here you can see dolphins and octopuses, and the large dugong, a marine mammal of the Sirenea order similar to the manatee of the Americas. The park has dense mangrove growth which provides fish with a nursery and scores of birds with nesting and roosting sites.