Language: English
Accounts on the echinoderms of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands off the coast of India are widely scattered in the literature and not easily available. As a result, researchers, conservation and management personnel as well as others concerned with echinoderm resources and biodiversity, are facing difficulty in compiling information on the echinoderm fauna known from the region. This is needed particularly in the Management of Protected Areas as basic information, as well as for undertaking studies on the biodiversity of a region. To meet this need, the following account has been compiled from all the available published literature as well as material studied by the author and those present in the National Zoological Collection of Zoological Survey of India at Kolkata and Port Blair, but unpublished or recently published by the author. The main aim is to prepare a base of available information by bringing together the scattered knowledge and detailed distribution in these islands from unpublished material though already known from these islands, so that further studies can be planned. It has not been possible to examine old material of all species because of their vastness and scattered nature, in addition to their fragile condition due to preservation over a century in some cases.