Bengal Coast faces most Erosion

• IAS NEXT, Lucknow
• 13, Apr 2022

Reference News:-

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences:

Of the 6,907.18 km long Indian coastline of the mainland:

• About 34% is under varying degrees of erosion.
• 26% of the coastline is of an accreting nature, and the remaining 40% is in a stable state.
• West Bengal, located on the eastern coast of the country, with a 534.35 km-long coastline, suffered erosion along about 60.5% of the coast (323.07 km) over the period from 1990 to 2018.
• This is followed by Kerala on the west coast, which has 592.96 km of coastline and 46.4% of it (275.33 km) faces erosion.
• Tamil Nadu, with a long coastline of 991.47 km, recorded erosion along 42.7% of it (422.94 km).
• Gujarat, with the longest coastline of 1,945.60 km, recorded erosion along 27.06% (537.5 km) of it.
• In the Union Territory of Puducherry, with a 41.66 km-long coastline, about 56.2% of its coast (23.42 km) recorded erosion.

15th Finance Commission recommendations:

1. Create a National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) comprising a Mitigation Fund at the National and State-levels (NDMF/SDMF).
2. Create a Response Fund at the National and State level (NDRF/SDRF) for the award NDMA may develop suitable norms for mitigation measures to prevent erosion and both the Union and the State Governments develop a policy to deal with the extensive displacement of people caused by coastal and river erosion. 

Preparedness:

Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has prepared and published an atlas of Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) maps for the entire coastline of India at a 1:100000 scale using data on sea level rise, coastal slope, shoreline change rate, coastal elevation, coastal geomorphology, tidal range and significant wave height.

What is Coastal erosion?

• It is the process by which local sea-level rise, strong wave action, and coastal flooding wear down or carry away rocks, soils, and/or sands along the coast.
• There are four main processes of coastal erosion. These are corrosion, abrasion, hydraulic action and attrition.
• Coastal erosion structures Seawalls, revetments, bulkheads, groins and breakwaters may reduce erosion in the short term.