New Delhi : Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that a total of 6,632 km long Indian coastline of mainland has been analyzed from 1990 to 2018 and it is noted that about 33.6 % of the coastline is under varying degree of erosion.
In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), an attached office of MoES is monitoring the shoreline erosion since 1990 using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, the reasons for coastal erosions include increase in frequency of Cyclones and Sea level rise and anthropogenic activities such as construction of harbours, beach mining and building of dams. He said, there are 526 maps prepared for entire Indian coast for identifying areas vulnerable to coastal erosion in 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 shore line protection measures. The digital and hard copy of all the Maps is released on 25th March, 2022.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, 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 restoration of 1.5 km long city beach after 30 years and helped in improving tourism and fishing activities in addition to protection of coast during extreme cyclonic events.
(ii) Kadalur Periya Kuppam, Tamil Nadu
An Offshore submerged dyke was implemented. This helped in protection of three fishing Villages during extreme cyclonic events and restored lost beach that is being used for landing of fishing boats and other fishing activities.
In addition, 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 state wise details of erosion are given below:
| S.No | State | Coast Length
(in km) |
Erosion | |||
| Km | % | |||||
| 1 | West Coast | Gujarat | 1945.60 | 537.5 | 27.6 | |
| 2 | Daman & Diu | 31.83 | 11.02 | 34.6 | ||
| 3 | Maharashtra | 739.57 | 188.26 | 25.5 | ||
| 4 | Goa | 139.64 | 26.82 | 19.2 | ||
| 5 | Karnataka | 313.02 | 74.34 | 23.7 | ||
| 6 | Kerala | 592.96 | 275.33 | 46.4 | ||
| 7 | East Coast | Tamil Nadu | 991.47 | 422.94 | 42.7 | |
| 8 | Puducherry | 41.66 | 23.42 | 56.2 | ||
| 9 | Andhra Pradesh | 1027.58 | 294.89 | 28.7 | ||
| 10 | Odisha | 549.50 | 140.72 | 25.6 | ||
| 11 | West Bengal | 534.35 | 323.07 | 60.5 | ||
| Total | 6907.18 | 2318.31 | 33.6 | |||
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