Mangroves are salt-tolerant (halophytic) trees and shrubs that grow in the intertidal zones of sheltered tropical and subtropical coasts, estuaries, and deltas, forming dense tidal forests in brackish water.
- They have special adaptations to waterlogged, saline, oxygen-poor mud: stilt or prop roots for support and breathing roots (pneumatophores) that stick up to take in air, plus viviparous seeds that germinate on the parent tree.
- Mangroves bind the coast, trap sediment, and act as a natural buffer against cyclones, storm surges, and tsunamis; they are also nurseries for fish and prawns.
- The Sundarban (West Bengal and Bangladesh, in the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta) is the largest mangrove forest in the world, a Ramsar site, biosphere reserve, and tiger habitat; Bhitarkanika (Odisha) is the second largest in India.
- Other Indian mangroves occur in the Godavari-Krishna delta, the Gulf of Kachchh, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and along Maharashtra and Goa.
- Mangroves are threatened by aquaculture, pollution, and reclamation; they are protected under coastal regulation rules and the role they played in reducing 2004 tsunami damage is widely cited.
Mangrove adaptations (pneumatophores, stilt roots, viviparous seeds), the Sundarban as the largest, their role as a coastal and cyclone buffer, and Indian mangrove locations are recurring environment facts.
Mangroves (salt-tolerant tidal forests on coasts) are not the same as coral reefs or wetlands generally; pneumatophores are breathing roots, different from the stilt or prop roots; Sundarban is the largest mangrove, while Bhitarkanika is second in India.
Salt-tolerant tidal coastal forests with breathing roots; the Sundarban delta hosts the world's largest, and they buffer coasts against cyclones and tsunamis.