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29to promote survey, explore and research leading to the advancement in our knowledge of thevarious aspects of the exceptionally rich animal life. The organisation is a vast repository ofNational Zoological Collection in the form of various types and reference collections neededfor the bio-systematic research and conservation strategies. Exploration activities of theDepartment in different ecosystems are as follows.(i) Estuarine and Marine SurveysMarine ecosystem survey includes study of faunal status and composition and theirinteraction with the marine ecosystems. Survey of faunal resources of estuarine areas,brackish-water lakes and back-waters of the eastern coast of India have been recently takenup by the newly established Estuarine Biological Research Station at Gopalpur on Sea,Ganjam, Orissa.(ii) Mangrove Faunal Surveys:For the collection and study of mangrove organisms, faunistic surveys are beingundertaken in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Sunderbans (West Bengal) and PitchavaramIslands (Tamil Nadu). The fauna is being thoroughly studied to assess the quantitative andqualitative distribution in these areas.Botanical Survey of India68. BSI is the nodal agency in the central government mandated to carry out botanicalsurvey of the whole country inclusive of the coastal area. Several publications have beenbrought out by the Survey on floral characteristics of coastal regions of India that givecomprehensive accounts of the flora endemic to various coastal regions.D.2.2 National InstitutionsNational Institute of Oceanography69. The National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) is one of the 38 constituentlaboratories of the Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi and wasestablished on 1 January 1966. The objective of NIO is to develop knowledge on physical,chemical, biological, geological, geophysical, engineering and pollution aspects of the watersaround India and to provide support to various industries, government and non-governmentorganisations through consultancy and contract research. The focus of research has been onobserving and understanding the special oceanographic features that the North Indian basinoffers. The inferences from this research have been reported in about 5000 research articles29