Fauna of Button Island National Parks, South Andamans, Bay of Bengal

Contents: 1. Introduction. 2. Topography of the Islands: vegetation. 3. Fauna. 4. Annexure-I. 5. List of fauna of Button Island National Parks. Acknowledgements. Reference.

From the Introduction: "Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal are endowed with a rich biodiversity in the various ecosystems of both terrestrial and marine environments. The North Button Island, Middle Button Island and South Button Island were designated as National Parks based on preliminary observations and assessments. However, there are no comprehensive accounts of fauna particularly of the marine environment around the protected areas. The three sanctuaries of North-, Middle-, and South Button Islands located at Northern end of the Ritchie\'s Archipelago are one such group.

The following account based on the tour report of Dr. Chandra and the later surveys (DVR) is limited to field identification, particularly of marine fauna, because of restrictions to collect important groups, which are under Wildlife Schedules. Very few faunal representations were collected and main stress was given to ecological observations by snorkeling. Underwater videography was made use of for inventorying various faunal components like corals etc., which could not be collected. The account is by no means complete or exhaustive, as there is still much scope to study deeper coastal areas, and also the different terrestrial and marine habitats. This is particularly true with corals, gorgonaceans, alcyonaceans, holothurians, fish etc."