Updated ornithology of the Lakshadweep Islands

Raju, Aju K and Sreenath, K R and Joshi, K K and Gopalakrishnan, A (2021) Updated ornithology of the Lakshadweep Islands. Indian Birds, 17 (2). pp. 33-47.

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Abstract

Islands, the natural laboratories, have always fascinated naturalists through the ages by their exclusive biogeographic features and real time exposition of more or less elusive biogeological evolutionary processes and ecosystem functioning. In terms of their origin, many of the world’s islands and island groups resulted from tectonic processes at active boundaries along ridges across the oceans. Some islands however, which lie close to the continental landmasses, vary in their origin by being part of the continental crust itself (Wagle & Kunte 1999). One such group is the Lakshadweep Islands, located on the northern part of the Chagos–Laccadive Ridge (comprising the Chagos Archipelago, the Maldives, and the Lakshadweep group of islands). Unlike the Chagos Archipelago and the Maldives, which are oceanic in origin, the Lakshadweep Islands are part of the continental block that forms India. It was during the Lower Eocene that the Laccadive Ridge became separated from the mainland (Nair et al. 2013) and the Lakshadweep Sea was formed in between.

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