{"id":360835,"date":"2026-04-15T15:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T09:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=360835"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:10:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:40:34","slug":"veli-akkulam-estuary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/veli-akkulam-estuary\/","title":{"rendered":"Veli-Akkulam Estuary"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><strong>News:<\/strong> The Veli\u2013Akkulam estuary is gradually degrading as invasive species, pollution, urban runoff, and encroachment are disrupting its food web and reducing native biodiversity.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>About Veli\u2013Akkulam estuary<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_360837\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-360837\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-360837 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-15-at-3.07.26-PM.jpeg?resize=300%2C224&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Veli-Akkulam Estuary\" width=\"300\" height=\"224\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-15-at-3.07.26-PM.jpeg?resize=300%2C224&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WhatsApp-Image-2026-04-15-at-3.07.26-PM.jpeg?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-360837\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Tandfonline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Location: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><b>Veli\u2013Akkulam Estuary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is located on the Thiruvananthapuram coast, Kerala.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a<\/span><b> small, shallow, and bar-built estuary<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> that forms part of the Kerala backwater system, adjoining the Lakshadweep Sea.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Structure: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The estuary is <strong>divided by a man-made bund<\/strong> into <strong>two separate sections:<\/strong><\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><b>the western Veli Estuary<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>the northeastern Akkulam Estuary<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Its connection <\/span><b>to the sea is not permanent<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and occurs <strong>intermittently<\/strong> during the <strong>monsoon season<\/strong> through the <strong>natural breaching of a coastal sandbar<\/strong>.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Reasons for degradation:<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Proliferation of invasive species: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The estuary is now being largely dominated by invasive species.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Native fish like the <\/span><b>prized karimeen (<\/b><b><i>Etroplus suratensis<\/i><\/b><b>), barbs, and indigenous catfish<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> have declined. Meanwhile, invasive species such as<\/span><b> Mozambique tilapia (<\/b><b><i>Oreochromis mossambicus<\/i><\/b><b>) and Nile tilapia (<\/b><b><i>Oreochromis niloticus<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) have increased rapidly, <strong>outcompeting native fish for food and habitat.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Trajectory of ecological decline: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The estuary is gradually moving toward <\/span><b>\u201ca clear path of ecological decline\u201d,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> shifting from a balanced ecosystem to one that i<\/span><b>s simpler and less stable. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is known as <\/span><b>trophic simplification.<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It means the food web is becoming shorter, less diverse, and less interconnected.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Drivers of degradation: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As a temporarily closed system, the estuary frequently<\/span><b> experiences limited water exchange and low oxygen levels, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">further promoting excessive algal growth and organic buildup.<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to these natural constraints, it is<\/span><b> increasingly affected by human-induced activities such as encroachment into catchment areas and discharge of pollutants into the body and other streams connected to it.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Water quality has also <\/span><b>declined due to rising nutrient loads, organic pollution, and contamination from heavy metals<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> originating from both point and diffuse sources.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The Veli\u2013Akkulam estuary is gradually degrading as invasive species, pollution, urban runoff, and encroachment are disrupting its food web and reducing native biodiversity. About Veli\u2013Akkulam estuary Location: The Veli\u2013Akkulam Estuary is located on the Thiruvananthapuram coast, Kerala. It is a small, shallow, and bar-built estuary that forms part of the Kerala backwater system, adjoining&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/veli-akkulam-estuary\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Veli-Akkulam Estuary<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10366,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,4182,12039,11211],"tags":[11872,12172],"class_list":["post-360835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-environment","category-knolls","category-places-in-news","tag-9pm-daily-factly","tag-mongabay","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10366"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360835\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}