UTTAR PRADESH JOURNAL OF ZOOLOGY

Coastal diversity plays a crucial role in supporting a wide array of ecosystems, economies, and human well-being. It provides essential services like food production, climate regulation, and coastal protection, and also supports fisheries and tourism. It harbors unique cultural values and historical significance. Diverse coastal ecosystems like mangroves, coral reefs, and salt marshes act as natural buffers against storms and erosion, protect coastlines, and filter pollutants. They also play a key role in carbon sequestration and support a vast array of species, including commercially important fish and shellfish. Coastal biodiversity faces numerous threats, primarily stemming from human activities and climate change. These include habitat destruction, pollution, overfishing, invasive species, and the impacts of climate change such as rising sea levels and ocean acidification. This study provides an illustrative and recent scientific account on the current status of the anthropogenic threats to the coastal biodiversity from Raigad District, Maharashtra, India with respect to the key industries, present coastal biodiversity, and anthropogenic threats to the coastal biodiversity from Raigad District. Results of the present study revealed that, habitat destruction, land reclamation, overexploitation of resources, pollution, sand dredging, and tourism have negatively impacted the coastal biodiversity from the Raigad district. The study recommends the establishing and maintaining the marine protected areas, reducing pollution, implementing sustainable fishing practices, and supporting research and monitoring will be helpful for effective conservation and management of coastal diversity.