Ecosystems are increasingly productive and efficient when there is sufficient biodiversity. Each form of life works
together with the surrounding environment to help recycle waste, maintain ecosystem and provide services that
others use and benefit from. Biodiversity is fundamentally the diversity of gene sequences in ecosystem. Most recent
publication of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN, 2009) record of threatened species has reported
39% of listed species as threatened with extinction (www.iucnredlist.org). Conservation of global biodiversity is an
important priority. It is necessary to have long term monitoring program at selected sites to provide information on
how biodiversity changes with space and time and whether changes are brought about by natural means or by
anthropogenic impact. The most critical contributors to changes in marine biodiversity are now recognised to be
fishing, pollution and eutrophication, physical alterations of coastal habitat, invasion of exotic species and global
climate change. Biodiversity of the seas and oceans includes pelagic and benthic life forms. Intertidal diversity of
benthic macro-fauna includes crustaceans, coelenterates, cephalopods, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals.
West coast of Mumbai city show many beaches with a variation in substratum and habitats. Khardanda beach (Lat. 19o
4’N and Long.72o 49’E) has rocky substratum with few scattered patches of shallow sand and a small patch of
mangroves. The study was conducted throughout the seasonal cycle. The biodiversity observed and recorded on
Khardanda beach included ten species of macro-algae, three species of mangroves, eight species of crabs, sixty eight
species of molluscs, fifteen species of fish and fourteen species of birds. Impact of anthropogenic activities was not