CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography (CSIR-NIO), Goa, has brought together 23 institutions for a national coral bleaching monitoring mission aimed at tracking how El Niño and marine heatwaves are affecting India’s coral reef ecosystems.
The National Coordination Mission on Monitoring and Assessing El Niño Impacts on Indian Coral Reefs will identify reef systems that are especially vulnerable to bleaching as well as those showing greater resilience. The findings are intended to help government agencies and conservation practitioners prioritise protection efforts and direct resources to reefs facing the greatest risk.
The coordinated effort includes the Zoological Survey of India, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services and Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies, along with other research and academic organisations. Scientists, conservationists and research scholars discussed the effects of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation and its interaction with marine heatwaves in the Indian Ocean.
“Coral reefs are Earth’s timekeepers and there is a need to protect them through coordinated efforts,” CSIR-NIO director Sunil Kumar Singh said, according to the institute.
A central focus of the discussions was the need for standardised monitoring across India’s coral reef regions. Participants assessed the monitoring capabilities of different institutions and discussed study designs, methodologies and common protocols so that data collected from reef systems exposed to different environmental conditions can be compared.
The meeting also featured technology-led approaches to documenting reef health. NIO scientist Pramod Maurya presented robotics-based technologies for monitoring coral bleaching. PC Mohanty of INCOIS, Hyderabad, highlighted the organisation’s bleaching alert services, while the Samudra Scientific Diving team from the Andaman Islands demonstrated underwater photogrammetry for recording changes in coral reef condition.
The participating institutions committed to coordinating the monitoring of bleaching and subsequent reef recovery by sharing scientific expertise and resources. The proposed network is expected to generate data that can be used to validate climate and ecological model predictions and improve understanding of how reefs respond to thermal stress.
CSIR-NIO said the data could also support the development of timely advisories to government agencies on conservation measures. The mission will examine geographical differences in bleaching severity by studying the environmental factors that make some reefs more susceptible than others.
According to the institute, this information would help government agencies and conservation practitioners prioritise reefs for conservation interventions and direct resources towards areas where they are most needed. The next phase involves coordinated monitoring, data sharing and documentation of bleaching and recovery across India’s coral reef regions.
