Our reef at risk

A discarded fishing net clings to a coral in the Bay of Bengal off Saint Martin's Island, posing a grave threat to its survival. Beneath these waters, abandoned nets have become deadly traps, entangling coral colonies across the seabed. Corals, crucial to the marine ecosystem and home to countless species, are being starved of sunlight and oxygen as these nets block their growth -- slowly suffocating an oceanic world that depends on them.

PHOTO: SHARIF SARWAR