Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary:
- Location:
- It is a wildlife sanctuary and estuary situated in Andhra Pradesh.
- It is 18 km from the port city of Kakinada, nestling on the deltaic branches of Gouthami and Godavari Rivers at Kakinada Bay.
- The sanctuary is a part of the Godavari estuary.
- Flora: It has extensive mangrove and dry deciduous tropical forest. It is the second largest stretch of mangrove forests in India.
- Fauna: It is home to the critically endangered white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture.
- The sanctuary possesses a wide variety of birds, because of the feed available in the backwaters of the mangrove forest.
- During low tide, some of the areas are exposed (elevated mud flats) having small fishes, shrimps and mollusks. These attract avifauna for feeding.
- Some critically endangered species like the white-backed vulture and the long-billed vulture are present in the sanctuary.
- The sanctuary has an 18-km long sand pit where olive ridley sea turtles’ nest from January to March every year.
Hope Island:
- Hope Island is a small tadpole shaped Island situated off the coast of Kakinada, India, in Bay of Bengal. It is a part of the Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary.
- It is a relatively young island, formed in the last 200 years into a 16-kilometre-long sand spit from the sand carried by the waters of Godavari delta.
- The area between Kakinada coast and Hope Island is known as Kakinada Bay.
- Hope Island protects the city of Kakinada from the strong storm surges coming from the Bay of Bengal. It acts as a natural break water and provides safety to the ships anchored in Kakinada bay which makes Kakinada Port one of the safest natural ports in the Eastern Coast of India.
- The northern part of the island is called the “Godavari point” which overlooks the entry point into the Bay of Kakinada and the Kakinada harbour.
- The sandy beaches of Hope island, along with the adjacent Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary are a nesting ground of the Vulnerable Olive Ridley turtle.
