Environmentalists worried after Centre says erosion present in 34% of nation's coastline

Research said rising sea levels could drown large chunks of coasts in 28 years

Environmentalists said they were seriously concerned over the Central Government's acknowledgement in Parliament that about 34 per cent of the coastline was under varying degrees of erosion for the past 28 years.

NatConnect Foundation, in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called for an immediate freeze on reclamations and construction of housing and infrastructure in coastal areas as the projects would not be safe due to erosion and rising sea levels.

Union Minister of State Minister of State with Independent Charge of Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh said the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) had been monitoring shoreline erosion using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques since 1990.

A mainland coastline length of 6,907.18km was analysed till 2018 and it was observed that 33.6% was under varying degrees of erosion, said Singh in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In the wake of research studies that said rising sea levels could drown large chunks of coasts in 28 years, the government report was a matter of grave concern for coastal areas such as the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, said NatConnect Foundation director B N Kumar.

The Mumbai Climate Action Plan had been prepared with these future shocks in mind, Kumar said.

"At a time when we are supposed to be ready with disaster management in coastal areas, the government is permitting reclamation and construction into the inter-tidal zones as witnessed in Uran," said Kumar. "Moreover, the relaxation of eco-sensitive areas and Coastal Regulation Zones are going to spell disaster."

Meanwhile, the 15th Finance Commission recommended the creation of a National Disaster Risk Management Fund and a State Disaster Risk Management Fund comprising a Mitigation Fund and a Response Fund at the national and state levels for the period from 2021-22 to 2022-26, the government said in the Lok Sabha.

At present, the National Disaster Management Authority is in the process of preparing norms for mitigation measures and developing a policy to deal with the extensive displacement of people.

NatConnect filed a series of complaints with the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change regarding the destruction of mangroves and wetlands on the Mumbai coast. The ministry in response asked the state government for an action taken report. The deadline for a response from the Maharashtra Environment Department passed on Thursday, Kumar said.

The inordinate delay in transferring mangroves - that provide natural protection against erosion and storms - led to their unchecked destruction at several places in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, particularly in Uran, Kumar said.