New Delhi: About 33.6 % of the 6,632 km long Indian coastline is under varying degrees of erosion, an analysis of shoreline erosion from 1990 to 2018 by the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), has revealed. The NCCR used remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques in its study.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Earth Sciences, Dr Jitendra Singh, said, the reasons for coastal erosions include an increase in the frequency of Cyclones and Sea level rise and anthropogenic activities such as the construction of harbours, beach mining, and building of dams. He said, there are 526 maps prepared for the entire Indian coast for identifying areas vulnerable to coastal erosion on a 1:25000 scale along with 66 district maps, 10 state /UT maps. A Report on “National Assessment of Shoreline Changes along Indian Coast” is released in July 2018 and shared with various Central and State government Agencies and Stakeholders for implementing shoreline protection measures. The digital and hard copies of all the Maps was released on March 25, 2022.
Singh informed that the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had successfully demonstrated innovative coastal erosion mitigation measures at two pilot locations.
(i) Puducherry Beach Restoration Project, Puducherry
The Submerged Reef has been implemented by MoES and beach nourishment is implemented by Govt of Puducherry. This helped in the restoration of a 1.5 km-long city beach after 30 years and helped in improving tourism and fishing activities in addition to protection of the coast during extreme cyclonic events.
(ii) Kadalur Periya Kuppam, Tamil Nadu
An Offshore submerged dyke was implemented. This helped in the protection of three fishing Villages during extreme cyclonic events and restored the lost beach that is being used for the landing of fishing boats and other fishing activities.
NCCR is also providing technical support to state governments of Kerala (Chellanam, Kollamkode, Poonthura, Varkala, and Shangumugham), Odisha (Ramayapatnam, Puri, Konark, and Pentha), Andhra Pradesh (Vishakapatnam) and Goa for implementation of coastal protection measures at vulnerable stretches the Cabinet note stated.
The state-wise details of erosion are given below:
-global bihari bureau
