To avoid a repeat of West Bengal’s New Moore Island, which disappeared without a trace due to rising sea levels, the environment ministry will carry out a survey of the country’s coastline and mark areas vulnerable to sea erosion, high tide and waves.
This is a first such effort to study the 7,500-km coastline and impact of shoreline change and sea level rise on the over six crore people who live in coastal areas.
Experts are also planning to make extensive use of aerial photography and satellite data to demarcate hazard lines and map environmentally sensitive areas that require protection.
“People who are found living on the wrong side of the hazard line will be sensitised to the problem and the risk involved. They will be relocated to safety in extreme situations,” environment minister
Jairam Ramesh said. Soon after a meeting of the cabinet committee on economic affairs on Thursday, the minister said the government had approved a Rs1,156-crore World Bank-assisted integrated coastal zone management project. The extensive project would be implemented over the next five years.
“The project has special significance in the context of climate change, since one of the definitive findings of the intergovernmental panel on climate change relates to the increase in mean sea levels due to global warming. The survey will focus on four factors — shoreline change, tides, waves and sea level rise,” the minister said.
The environment ministry’s special focus will be on identifying and demarcating fragile coastal areas such as mangroves, brackish water wetlands and coral reefs to mark the “critically vulnerable coastal areas” along the coastline. Critically vulnerable places included Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar, Gulf of Khambat in Gujarat, Malvan, Vasasi-Manori and Achra-Ratnagiri in Maharashtra and Karwar and Coondapur in Karnataka. “The project would also aim at capacity building of people living near the coast,” Ramesh said.
