Marine National Park - Narara Jamnagar

Today I am going to share about the Narara Island. It is approx 60kms West from Jamnagar city. The island is the part of Marine National Park. 

The Gulf of Kutch was notified as a Marine National Park in 1980. It is having a rich environment for marine lives. Marine sanctuary is spanning from Okha to Jodiya. While the MNP is the core area. It is having total 42 islands. Narara is one of them.

Before few years, the Narara has been connected through motor-way. So we can reach there through vehicle. Reaching there, you need to take the legal entry permission from MNP office. The coral reef of island is good. You don't need to dive into the water to see the marine life. The reef has approx 1-3 feet sea water in 2 km area during low tide. So the visitors go through walking for marine life. The area is strictly protected under wildlife protection act 1970, So anybody must not harm or disturb any natural material there.

Marine Species

The most common marine spieces found here are Star fish, Brital star, Sea anemons, Sea cucumbar, Sea slugs, Sea turtles, Sea worms etc. Coral species found at Narara are Moon coral, Plate coral, Brain coral, Finger coral etc. 

Mangove Forest

Narara has also a dense region of Mangroves. The mangroves are the very important chain for environment. There are so many benefits of mangroves for coastal areas. Mangroves retains expansion of salty regions. The mangroves filter the salt water by their roots. There are 6 types of mangroves found here at Narara. They are

1) Avicennia Marina
2) Avicennia Officinalis
3) Avicennia Alba
4) Ceriops Tagal
5) Rhizophora Mucronata
6) Aegiceros  Corniculatum

Birds at Narara

The large variety if birds likes the shore of Narara. Thousands of birds can be found on the sand area. They are Storks (Blake Necked Stork, Painted Storks), Pelicans (Rozy Pelican, Dalmatian Pelican), Sandpipers, Euratian Curlew, Marsh harier, Plovers, Gulls etc.

The forest department organize camping activities for children at Narara. During that camp, children learn and understand about marine life, marine vegetations, eco-system and also wildlife, forests, bird watching, night sky gazing etc. The period of this camping is from December to January approx. The MNP Jamnagar office can be contact for more information and for camp registration during registration period.

Astronomy at Narara camps

I am amateur astronomer. I am doing astronomical activities since 2003. I do the programs for school, colleges, NGOs and also for public. Here at Narara sometimes I come for camp participants to show them the night sky. As these camps are Nature Education Camps, showing the night sky and give them knowledge about stars, constellations, planets etc is very important. I use a 3" Newtonian reflector telescope and show the Moon, Jupiter Moons, Saturn with rings etc to camp participants.

When to visit?

Marine national park of GoK has a huge number of marine species. The reef is having a good marine ecosystem. But during the hot season, the marine creatures generally go deeper. So best season to visit Narara island is the Winter i.e. Dec to Feb.

We can see marine lives just by walking in 1-2ft sea water during LOW tide at Narara. So the low tide timing is only timing to visit Narara. Check the low tide time of Narara before visiting.

Here are some links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marine_National_Park,_Gulf_of_Kutch
http://mnpcs.gov.in/narara-reef.php
www.lakhotanatureclub.com

Note: The details given in this article about Narara and MNP is just for reference and also as per author's opinion.