Coastal environments of India are under immense stress due to discharge and disposal of domestic and industrial wastes from point and nonpoint sources as a result of rapid growth of population and economic activities. Further, lack of proper sewer systems and discharge of untreated/semi-treated sewage and effluents from coastal towns/cities cause degradation of coastal environment.

The Government of India, in the Ministry of Earth Sciences (formerly Ministry of Ocean Development) have been monitoring the levels of marine pollution at about 80 locations along the coastline of the country. The programme is called COMAPS. The major objectives of this programme are to assess status and trend of coastal marine environmental quality on a long term basis and to alert government and public institutions, of their implications. The programme is operational from the year 1991-92 onwards. Data on nearly 25 environmental parameters including physical, chemical, biological and microbiological characteristics of water and sediment are collected with the help of R&D institutions in 0-10 km sector of these locations. The results obtained under the programme are periodically published in the Annual Report of the Ministry and also in the website http://www.dod.nic.in

Data on select parameters for selected locations are published in http://www.icmam.gov.in