NO DECISION ON ADDU ATOLL : SOLIH

NO DECISION ON ADDU ATOLL : SOLIH

Subject : Environment / Geography

Context : The Maldives has made no decision on opening an Indian consulate in its southern Addu Atoll, President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih said on Tuesday, a fortnight after the Indian Cabinet cleared a proposal for it.

Concept :

About Addu Atoll

• Addu is one of the most beautiful sites of Maldives’26 coral atolls. It comprises more than two dozens of Maldives’ 1192 islands.
• Addu Atoll, also known as Seenu Atoll, is the southernmost atoll of the Maldives.
• Addu Atoll is the location of Addu City, one of the two cities of the Maldives. Addu City consists of the inhabited areas of Addu Atoll, namely the natural islands of Hulhudhoo, Meedhoo, Maradhoo, Feydhoo, and Hithadhoo.
• Addu Atoll, together with Fuvahmulah, extend the Maldives into the Southern Hemisphere. About 10% of actual Maldives residents are living here with unique culture and dialect.
• According to the official figures released by Maldives Tourism Indian citizens are second among people coming to the Maldives to visit from all over the world.

Atolls

• An atoll is a roughly circular (annular) oceanic reef system surrounding a large (and often deep) central lagoon.
• The lagoon has a depth 80-150 metres and may be joined with sea water through a number of channels cutting across the reef.
• Atolls are located at great distances from deep see platforms, where the submarine features may help in formation of atolls, such as a submerged island or a volcanic cone which may reach a level suitable for coral growth.
• An atoll may have any one of the following three forms-

true atoll—a circular reef enclosing a lagoon with no island;

an atoll surrounding a lagoon with an island;

a coral island or an atoll island which is, in fact, an atoll reef, built by the process of erosion and deposition of waves with island crowns formed on them.

• Atolls are far more common in the Pacific than any other ocean. The Fiji atoll and the Funafuti atoll in the Ellice/Island are well known examples of atolls. A large ‘number of atolls also occur in the Lakshadweep Islands.
• In the South Pacific, most atolls occur in mid-ocean. Examples of this reef type are common in French Polynesia, the Caroline and Marshall Islands, Micronesia, and the Cook Islands.
• The Indian Ocean also contains numerous atoll formations. Examples are found in the Maldives and Chagos island groups, the Seychelles, and in the Cocos Island group.

Other types of coral reef

• Fringing reefs : Fringing reefs are reefs that grow directly from a shore. They are located very close to land, and often form a shallow lagoon between the beach and the main body of the reef.
• A fringing reef runs as a narrow belt [1-2 km wide]. This type of reef grows from the deep sea bottom with the seaward side sloping steeply into the deep sea. Coral polyps do not extend outwards because of sudden and large increase in depth.
• The fringing reef is by far the most common of the three major types of coral reefs, with numerous examples in all major regions of coral reef development.
• Barrier reefs : Barrier reefs are extensive linear reef complexes that parallel a shore, and are separated from it by lagoon
• This is the largest (in size, not distribution) of the three reefs, runs for hundreds of kilometres and is several kilometres wide. It extends as a broken, irregular ring around the coast or an island, running almost parallel to it.
• Barrier reefs are far less common than fringing reefs or atolls, although examples can be found in the tropical Atlantic as well as the Pacific.