Marine Litter in the South Asian Seas Region

The SAS Region includes the seas bordering Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka and comprises the Northern part of the Indian Ocean, along with parts of the Bay of Bengal and the Arabian Sea. The countries constituting the SAS Region have almost a fifth of the world‟s total population. High population density, low income, low development indicators, and high dependence upon natural resources for livelihood characterise all these countries.The major sources of coastal and marine pollution originating from land vary among the SAS countries, which show great disparity in size and demography. The nature and intensity of development activities, human population size, income level, and state and type of industry and agriculture are among the factors contributing to each country‟s unique pollution problems