Sunday, January 23 2005 17:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Port Blair: The December 26 tsunami wrecked the rich coral life across the famous Andaman and Nicobar reef, second only to Australia's Great Barrier and deposited debris that threatens their very existence as also that of thousands of marine animals nestling within.

Coral reef experts in Port Blair are worried not so much because the beautiful reefs were broken to pieces but because the filthy sea sediments and sludge deposits could snuff life out of them in the long run.

"The coral reefs are spawning, breeding and nestling grounds for so many species of fishes, algae, anemones and molluscs. The tsunami has left behind so much of debris on them that the reefs will surely be stressed and not be able to house these marine life forms for a long time to come," says regional director of the Zoological Survey of India D R K Sastry.

Sastry said the high intensify tsunami smashed the coral reefs breaking off their branches and then caused double trouble when the wave roll-back deposited tons of sludge on them.

A team of researchers that surveyed the coral formations in South Andamans after the tsunami said all of the nearly 200 species of corals found on the reefs had suffered massive damages.

''Boulder coral reefs, which are made of huge calcium carbonate deposits secreted by the corals, seem to have shifted from their original places. In some places they have also leaned forward towards the sea. Delicate stag horn coral reefs have broken off in almost all there habitats,'' says researcher Kevin Shimrone Moses.