A Compiled Dataset of Jellyfish Swarming and Beach Stranding Events Along the Indian Coast (1970–2026)

This dataset provides a georeferenced compilation of documented jellyfish swarming and beach-stranding events along the Indian coastline. The records were assembled from published scientific literature, technical reports, and verified media sources spanning multiple decades. To ensure consistency and relevance for aggregation analyses, the dataset includes only abundant jellyfish swarming and beach-stranding events, while isolated observations of single individuals have been excluded in the version 2. Each record contains administrative information (state), geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude), year of occurrence, and taxonomic details (Class, Order, and Species). Event-specific information includes occurrence type (swarming or beach stranding), qualitative abundance category (e.g., few, abundant), and location description. Where available, ecological, socio-economic, and operational impacts associated with each event—such as fishing net clogging, disruptions to coastal industries, tourism impacts, or jellyfish harvesting—are also documented. Temporal information is provided through From_Date and To_Date fields, enabling representation of both short-duration and prolonged events. Every record is linked to its original source, with complete bibliographic references and source URLs to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and traceability. The dataset supports investigations of the spatial distribution, seasonality, species composition, long-term trends, and impacts of jellyfish aggregations along the Indian coast. It is intended to facilitate ecological research, coastal management, biodiversity assessments, and the development of future citizen-science initiatives. This dataset was compiled as part of an initiative by the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) to establish a comprehensive repository of jellyfish occurrence information for researchers, resource managers, and other stakeholder communities. It also provides a baseline for systematic monitoring and the future development of real-time jellyfish monitoring and predictive advisory services.