Poor monitoring of country’s land wealth has come to the fore with the government remaining in dark over the disappearance of an island in Lakshadweep for the last two decades, says R.M. Hidayathullah, a research scholar at University of Calicut.

Ironically, the island – Parli – I (an uninhabited regions) – still exists in the Government records, Hidayathullah says.

Parli – I, which was located 11 km east of Agali, has not be removed from the maps of Survey of India. The map published in 2009 shows the island, while the Google earth maps of 2003 does not have it.

The Department of Botany from the University conducted the research in 2011 for a year on the topic ‘Sea Erosion’, during which time the researchers found some parts of island reduced and some increased due to erosion.

“This is causing negative impact on the bio-diversity of the region. Out of the 36 islands, only 10 are inhabited. Of them three are coral islands and six reeves,” the research said.