Frequent cyclones and sea level rise besides anthropogenic activities such as construction of harbours, beach mining and building of dams are taking a toll on the country’s coastline, the Government said in Parliament on Thursday, indicating the livelihood threats looming large on the fisheries communities depending on resources from the sea.

The Government has cited an analysis for the period between 1990-2018, revealing that at least 33.6 per cent of the 6,632 km long coastline of mainland is under varying degree of erosion.

Dr Jitendra Singh, Union Minister of Science and Technology, said the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), has been monitoring the shoreline erosion since 1990 using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques. “Of the total 6,632 km long Indian coastline of the mainland which has been analyzed from 1990 to 2018 and it is noted that 33.6% of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion,” he said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The reasons for coastal erosion 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 further said that there are 526 maps prepared for the entire Indian coast for identifying areas vulnerable to coastal erosion in 1:25000 scale along with 66 district maps, 10 state /Union Territories maps.

A Report on “National Assessment of Shoreline Changes along Indian Coast” was released in July, 2018 and shared with various Central and State government Agencies and stakeholders for implementing shore line protection measures. Innovative coastal erosion mitigation measures at two pilot locations have helped.

These are Puducherry Beach Restoration Project, Puducherry where the submerged reef has been implemented by the Environment Ministry and beach nourishment implemented by the Puducherry Government. “This helped in restoration of the 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,” the Minister said. Another project is Kadalur Periya Kuppam in 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.