ABSTRACT
India treasures diverse flora and fauna. The five Indian mangroves are the home for different species of animals, plants, and microorganisms. Indian mangroves cover an area of 4,628 sq.km along the coastline. This covers 3% of the world’s mangroves forest consisting about 1,600 plants and about 3,700 faunal species. Sundarbans is the largest mangroves in the world present in Bay of Bengal consisting of 1,336 number of species of organisms. Bhitarkanika mangrove of Odisha state covers 0.14% of India’s geographical area is the home of over a thousand different species. Similarly, Godavari Krishna, Pichavaram, and Baratang also treasure a remarkable diversity of plants and animals. These all mangrove areas have different special features which makes them unique in terms of biological environment. A large class of bioactive compounds is extracted from the organisms of these mangroves including Actinomycin, Proactinomycin, Streptothricin, Apratoxins, and much more which have crucial applications. This immense variety of organisms not only contributes to maintaining the ecosystem but also the potential source of different biomolecules of pharmaceutical, therapeutic, enzymatic and medicinal 32uses. This chapter describes the diversity of living organisms in Indian mangroves and their perspective for exploration of novel biomolecules and value-added products.
