Marina Beach (Tamil: மெரினா கடற்கரை) is an urban beach in the city of Chennai, India, along the Bay of Bengal, part of the Indian Ocean. The beach runs from near Fort St. George in the north to Besant Nagar in the south, a distance of 13 km (8.1 mi), making it the longest urban beach in the country and the world's second longest. The Marina is primarily sandy, unlike the short, rocky formations that make up the Juhu Beach in Mumbai. The average width of the beach is 300 m (980 ft) and the width at the widest stretch is 437 m (1,434 ft). Bathing and swimming at the Marina Beach are legally prohibited because of the dangers, as the undercurrent is very turbulent. It is the most crowded beach in the country and attracts about 30,000 visitors a day during weekdays[6] and 50,000 visitors a day during the weekends and on holidays. During summer months, about 15,000 to 20,000 people visit the beach daily. In 2010, 18 per cent of the 5,000 respondents interviewed by the Tripadvisor Survey panned the beach as being dirty.
The beach promenade in 1913
Before the Madras harbour was built, the Marina beach was just a strip of mud, teeming with mudskippers. The beach washed up close to the present day road for a long time until the harbor was built in 1881. Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff, the governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886, who was captivated by the beach on an earlier visit to the city in the late 1870s, conceived and built the promenade along the beach in 1884 by extensively modifying and layering with soft sand. He recalls in his memoirs:
“ Our way lay first along the shore and made me think of the very sensible answer made to me when I was talking about going to India. 'Go', he said, 'For God's sake go. If you spend only twelve hours on the beach at Madras, it will be a great deal better than nothing'. ”
Grant Duff christened it the Madras Marina in the same year, on which he explains in a letter:
“ We have greatly benefited Madras by turning the rather dismal beach of five years ago into one of the most beautiful promenades in the world. From old Sicilian recollections, I gave in 1884 to our new creation the name of Marina; and I was not a little amused when walking there last winter with the Italian General Saletta, he suddenly said to me 'On se dirai a Palerme'. ”
Ever since the harbour was built, the area south of the port has accreted significantly, forming the present day's beach mainly due to the presence of wave breakers laid for the construction of the harbour, although the coast in the northern region has undergone severe erosion. Eventually, the north-drifting current widened the beach to its present extent. The beach was formed as a result of arresting the littoral drift by the port's breakwater. The area of the beach is increasing 40 sq m every year due to progradation.
The Marina used to be famed for its pristine beauty, jolly ambiance, and rich ecosystems[citation needed]. However, since the middle of the 20th century, the beach and water have become polluted.Proliferation of plastic bags, human waste, and other pollutants have rendered many parts of the beach unusable. In recent years, many voluntary organizations have taken up the task of cleaning up the Marina and protecting the ecosystem. Particular efforts include protection of Olive Ridley turtle nests along the Neelankarai section of the beach. Meiofaunal composition at the Marina Beach chiefly includes turbellarians, nematodes, polychaetes, oligochaetes, and harpacticoids.Species of gastrotrichs are also found in the region
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