India Unbound
Coastline of India
India's long coast is full of surprises: turtles that arrive in huge crowds, a bridge that lifts itself for ships, and islands where octopuses change colour!
Did you know?
Olive ridley sea turtles nest on Odisha's beaches in huge groups called arribadas. Thousands of females come ashore together, usually at night, to lay their eggs. Gahirmatha Beach in Odisha is the world's largest known olive ridley nesting site!
The New Pamban Bridge in Tamil Nadu, opened in April 2025, is India's first vertical-lift sea bridge. Its middle section rises straight up so that ships up to 22 metres tall can pass under it.
The Marine National Park in the Gulf of Kutch, Gujarat, protects 42 islands and the sea around them. Dugongs (gentle 'sea cows' that graze on sea grass) and octopuses that change colour live in its waters.
Try this: Measure a Wiggly Coast
Open an atlas to a map of India. With a ruler, measure the west coast in big straight steps, from Gujarat down to Kerala, and add them up. Now lay a thread along every tiny bend of the same coast, mark where it ends, straighten it and measure it. Which answer is longer? Read Go Further to find out why!
Go further: The Coastline Puzzle
Scientists noticed something strange: the shorter the ruler you use to measure a coast, the longer the coast seems! A short ruler can follow every little bay and rock, while a long ruler skips right over them. Measured in 100 km steps, Britain's coastline is about 2,800 km. Measured in 50 km steps, it comes to about 3,400 km. This is called the coastline paradox. It helps explain why coastlines can seem to 'grow' when they are measured with more detailed maps!