Coastline Erosion in India

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GS 3: Geographical features and their location-changes in critical geographical and the effects of such change.

National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences has released a new report where it has stated the worrying picture of Indian coastline.

32 per cent of India’s coastline underwent sea erosion and 27 per cent of it expanded between 1990 and 2018.
Coastal erosion
- The West Bengal coastline has undergone the maximum erosion (60 percent) followed by Puducherry (56 per cent); Kerala (41 per cent); Tamil Nadu (41 per cent); Andhra Pradesh (28 per cent); Gujarat including Daman and Diu (26 per cent); Odisha (26 per cent); Karnataka (24 per cent); Maharashtra (22 per cent); and Goa (19 per cent).

Coastal expansion
- While on the other hand, Odisha coast expanded by 51 per cent, followed by the coast of Andhra Pradesh, which expanded 48 per cent; Karnataka (26 per cent); West Bengal (25 per cent); Tamil Nadu (22 per cent); Kerala (21 per cent); Gujarat including Daman and Diu (20 per cent); Goa (14 per cent; Maharashtra (10 per cent) and Puducherry (8 per cent).
India’s coastline
- The country’s coastline is around 6,630 km long where approx. 2,135 kilometres was subject to varying degrees of erosion and around 1,760 km expanded during this period.
- Only around 2,700 km of the coastline is stable.

Coastal pockets
- As many as 98 coastal pockets of the country have been facing sea erosion.
- Tamil Nadu has 26 coastal areas vulnerable to sea erosion, followed by West Bengal (16); Kerala (12); Maharashtra (8); Gujarat including Daman and Diu (8); Karnataka (7); Andhra Pradesh (6); Odisha (5); Goa (3) and Puducherry (3).

Effects on the local communities
- Some stretches of India’s shoreline are subject to varying degrees of erosion due to natural causes or anthropogenic activities.
- The coastal erosion does impact coastal communities residing in the erosion prone areas, including fishermen.