and their abundance in the present investigation. In the present study,
mollusks form the second dominant group followed by polychaetes.
The dominance of gastropods and bivalves are also observed by
Kathiresan K et al. [35] in Vellar estuary on the southeast coast of India.
They report that high tolerance to different environmental situation
and various estuarine conditions reveal its higher abundance. In the
present study, crustaceans form the third group after polychaetes and
molluscs. The present observation shows numerical dominance in the
decreasing order as polychaetes, mollusks (bivalves and gastropods),
and crustaceans, as observed earlier by Mohammed SZ and Kumar RS
[36,37] in other mangrove environs of India. Irrespective of mangrove
types, the mangroves show the same order of polychaetes, molluscs, and
crustaceans. From this, it is evident that polychaetes form the dominant
group of macrobenthos in mangroves.