Advanced geospatial tools like remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) proved beneficial in providing a detailed scenario on land use and land cover patterns. The increasing population poses pressure on natural resources, has modified them at irrecoverable levels. The present study was carried out to analyze the spatial and temporal changes which occurred along the parts of Thane creek of Mumbai using different satellite imagery viz., 1992 (Landsat Thematic Mapper), 2001 (Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper) and 2005 (IRS P6 LISS IV multispectral) data. Satellite data was classified using supervised techniques to delineate different land cover features. The study found an increase of mangrove areas along the coastline from 1992 to 2001 and decrease in area from 2001 to 2005. We suggest for conservation of remaining mangrove areas in future.

Biodiversity, the vivid diversity among living organisms, either aquatic or terrestrial is essential to sustain the ecological equilibrium. The aquatic biodiversity, the most threatened of all extant biodiversity on earth needs the utmost and urgent conservation action plan. The coastal biodiversity is even more threatened with tremendous anthropogenic pressures and compounded further by the looming climate change. Increasing human population in coastal areas resulted in an increased pressure on the mangrove ecosystems in many countries with a growing demand for timber, fuel wood, fodder and other non-wood forest products (Saenger et al., 1983). Within the coastal biodiversity, the mangrove ecosystem which supports different life forms is threatened due to illicit and indiscriminate anthropogenic activities in the recent years (Ramachandran et al., 1998; and Reddy et al., 2007). According to the Government of India (1987), India lost 40% of its mangrove area in the last century. Mangrove ecosystems which act as buffers between land and sea are important as they protect the land from the effect of violent sea during floods as well as prevent soil erosion by trapping and depositing the sediments brought by tides. In view of their ecological importance, mangrove ecosystems are usually described as objects of conservation priority.

The phytogeographical distribution of these mangroves within the Indian sub-continent is along the east and west coasts, and in parts of isolated islands of Andaman and Nicobar. India has a total area of 4,461 km² under mangrove cover, which is 0.14% of the country's total geographic area. It accounts for about 5% of the world's mangrove vegetation (Anonymous, 2003) and nearly 23% of the mangroves, found along the west coast (Kathiresan, 2003). As per the report of the Government of India (1987), the area covered under mangroves in Maharashtra is 330 km² (Anonymous, 1987), but the work done by Nayak (1993) using the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite data showed an area of only 138 km² and the remaining mangrove cover was leftover (Nayak, 1993). These mangrove ecosystems are found in Thane Panvel, Karanja, and Dharmatar creek complex in the Raigarh and Thane districts of Maharashtra. The dominant species along the coast are Rhizophora mucronata, Avicennia officinalis, A. marina, Sonneratia alba, S. apetala, while Excoecaria agallocha and Acanthus ilicifolius are very common (Jagtap et al., 2001)

Environmental Sciences Journal, Geospatial Tools, Geographic Information System, Remote Sensing, Ecological Equilibrium, Mangrove Ecosystems, Phytogeographical Distribution, Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, Petroleum Industries, Sewage Industrial Pollution, Landsat Thematic Mapper.