Dear members of the press, thank you for your interest in Coastwise Marine Festival 2024.

This is the fourth edition of India’s flagship marine festival that shines the spotlight on lesser-known ecosystems. The festival starts February 3, 2024.

Coastwise came into existence primarily to make the invisible spaces on our shores visible – the intertidal zone. We have since included other marine ecosystems as well. To bring the focus to the biodiversity on and off our coasts – where the tide ensures that biodiversity gets right of way.

It is this right of way that we highlight in the festival with activities, talks, workshops, and outreach in public spaces and of course, shore walks.

This year, our events include more venues, so a wider audience is able to partake in more events.

This February, we will explore shores, mangroves and even fish landing centres, so citizens can understand what lives on our coasts and how a coastal fishing industry operates, and how they can eat seafood more responsibly.

To celebrate the habitat and this wonderful avian visitor, we have the Flight of the Flamingo festival at Airoli. Participants can go on a boat ride through the mangroves, go on a mangrove trail and attend workshops where they learn about creatures from marine ecosystems using art as a medium.

Inspiration and aspiration comes in from experts in the field whose work forms the bedrock of marine conservation. Experts like wildlife photographer Sarang Naik, and artist Sefi George will speak to enthusiasts about their work and hold workshops.

All this culminates in a photography competition award night that celebrates India’s marine biodiversity.

The organisations working on this are Mangrove Cell of the Maharashtra Forest Department, Mangrove Foundation of Maharashtra, Coastal Conservation Foundation and WWF-India.

For the entire press kit, or queries on interviews with our experts, get in touch at contact@coastalconservation.in or call us on +91 77100 00033.