Bays, Gulf and Sea - India

India's peninsula juts into the Indian Ocean, with the Arabian Sea on the east and the Bay of Bengal on the west. The country is situated on vital maritime trade routes between the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia.

Bays, Gulf, and Sea in India

1 Gulf of Kutch:

It separates Kutch and Kathiawar peninsula and has the maximum potential for tidal energy.

• Its famous ports are – Kandla, Mundra, Okha, Salaya

2 Gulf of Khambat:

It forms the mouth of various rivers such as Narmada, Tapi, Mahi, Sabarmati.

3 Gulf of Mannar:

It is located in the southeast of Tamil Nadu and it separated India and Sri Lanka.

• It is Asia's first oceanic biodiversity protection region and a biosphere reserve
• Tuticorin (A famous port) lies along its coast
• Sethusamudram project is likely to hamper with its environment

4 Palk Bay:

It is home to the proposed sethusamudram project.

• It lies between India and Sri Lanka

5 Palk Strait:

It is located between India and Sri Lanka.

• The sethusamudram project is to connect Palk Strait to the Gulf of Mannar
• It has Coral formation



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• Rama's Bridge/Rama Setu/Adam's Bridge

It lies off the southeastern coast of Tamil Nadu, India, and Mannar Island off the northwestern coast of Sri Lanka.

It is a chain of limestone shoals between Pamban Island which is also known as Rameswaram Island.



• Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project:

It is a project to link Palk Bay and the Gulf of Mannar between Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka by creating a shipping channel through the shallow sea called Sethusamudram via Rama Setu.



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• Famous Seas/Oceans of India:

1 Bay of Bengal:

Slopes of varying gradient border Bay of Bengal to the northeast, north, and northwest and it is bordered by a wide continental shelf to the north that narrows to the south.

• The Bay of Bengal has a distinct tropical marine ecosystem
• It has copious river drainage into the northern part of the bay
• The profusion of wetlands, marshes, and mangroves increase the productivity of nearshore fish species

There have been discoveries of Petroleum and natural gas in the Bay of Bengal near the offshore of the Godavari and Manandi deltas. Large tankers coming from the Persian Gulf and going to the Strait of Malacca pass from south of the Bay of Bengal which is their principal trade route.

India's profitable exportation of raw materials can be reflected by Haldia, Vishakhapatnam, and Paradeep which are well developed as iron ore terminals. The major branches of the Bay of Bengal are:

• Chandipur and Gopalpur in Orissa
• Marina in Chennai



2 Arabian Sea:

It is a region of the Indian Ocean and it is bounded by Pakistan and Iran on the north, by northeastern Somalia on the south, by India on the east, and by the Arabian Peninsula on the west. Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, Oman, Iran, Pakistan, India, and the Maldives are the countries with coastlines on the Arabian Sea. The Arabian Sea has two important branches that are –

• The Gulf of Aden - In the southwest, it connects the Red Sea through the Strait of Bab-el-Mandeb
• The Gulf of Oman - In the northwest, it connects with the Persian Gulf
• On the Indian coast, there are the gulfs of Cambay and Kutch

The Indus and Narmada rivers are the principal rivers that drain in the Arabian Sea. The major branches of the Arabian Sea are –

• Mandavi, Dwarka, and Chorwad in Gujarat
• Dahanu and Murad in Maharashtra
• Arambol and Karwar in Karnataka
• Kollam and Kovalam in Kerala

3 Indian Ocean:

The Indian Ocean is very significant for India in a lot of ways such as –

• Strategic Significance:

Through the Indian Ocean, India gets to overlook some of the most important sea lanes such as the Suez Canal, Malacca Strait.

• Economic Significance:

Indian Ocean provides long coastline, 2.02 million sq km EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone)

• Tourism Significance:

Marine biodiversity and rich ecosystem with coral reefs, mangroves.

• The Indian Ocean has large fishing potential
• Has high Wave energy and Tidal energy potential
• It is a Zone of Hydrocarbons

It is very important for the generation of Southwest Monsoon.