A coastal city in the Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Gandhi and Sudama. Porbandar was formerly the seat of the eponymous princely state in British India. The ruling family of the state belonged to the Jethwa clan of rajputs.
Porbandar is one of the mega bio diverse district of Gujarat as it contains 261 species of Birds, 22 species of Mammals, 39 species of Reptiles, 4 species of Amphibians, 55 species of Butterflies, and 759 species of Plants. A number of wetlands, both perennial and seasonal, are present in the Porbandar region. It has been observed that whenever there is a drought in this region, all the native as well as migratory birds get distributed in these satellite wetlands. With the frequency of drought years increasing it has become all the more important to increase the level of protection to the satellite wetlands. Satellite wetlands of high significance value to both migratory and resident water birds owing to its fully protected area status serves as a large staging, moulting and roosting grounds besides being foraging sites for many of water bird species. However, since Porbandar Bird Sanctuary is only ca 9.33ha in area, waterfowls have to largely meet their food requirements from aquatic habitats scattered around it. Many of these wetlands hold high conservation value for several water bird species, both migratory and resident by providing them wintering, staging and roosting grounds. The entire landscape with scattered wetland islands which are connected through flyways can be looked at from the point of THEORY OF ISLAND BIO-GEOGRAPHY. The basic premise of this theory is that the number of species occurring on an island represents a dynamic balance between recurrent immigration and recurrent extinction of resident species. Porbandar is an administrative district of Gujarat located in the western part of the state with its head quarters located at Porbandar town. Porbandar was carved out of Junagadh district. There are some worth visiting wetland sites in and around Porbandar. Total 226 wetlands are mapped including 95 small wetlands (<2.25 ha) with 22199 ha area. Inland wetlands contribute 27.3% of the total wetland area and coastal wetlands contribute 72.7% of the total wetland area. Major wetland categories of the district are Lagoons, Rivers/streams, Reservoirs and Sand/beach. Area under aquatic vegetation in post-monsoon is about 5451 ha. Open water spread of the wetlands is significantly higher in post monsoon (13390 ha) than during pre monsoon (7376 ha). Major portion of the open water area is under low turbidity during both seasons.