'Sea level rise will force people to shift to other nations'
Panaji, Oct 13 (PTI) The rise in sea level due toclimate change will force people to leave their country andshift to neighbouring nations, a maritime security expert saidtoday.
Former Indian Coast Guard Chief Prabhakaran Palerisaid the rising sea level has threatened existence of fewcountries, which will completely go underwater.
"There are quiet a few countries which can gocompletely under water. What will happen when these peoplewill be displaced, that time human traffickers will thrive andcrime rate will increase," said Paleri.
He was talking to reporters on the sidelines of athree-day conference Sagar Discourse 1.0 organised by Forumfor Integrated National Security with representatives from 22countries taking part in it.
"Rise in sea level will give rise to several problemsspecially for the countries which are low lying. While forthose countries with bigger land mass, people can gobackwards, but there are some countries wherein fear of goingunderwater looms large due to the sea rise as a result ofclimate change," he said.
"In our country when the sea level rises we can gobackwards but in some countries when sea level rises they haveno place to go because they are one-and-half or two feet(above sea level)," Paleri said.
"These people will have to find places and refugeeswill come. They all will come to the nearest countries," headded.
"India is a place where most of the people come. Wehave been facing this kind of problem for years," Paleriadded.
"The affected people will pack the bag go to differentcountries. Now itself we will have to think about it becauseit can happen any time," the former ICG chief warned.
"We cannot allow people to come to our country as thatis not easy. Under international law these people are notconsidered as refugees. They will come sailing," he said.
Paleri said the countries will have to create laws sothat we know how to handle the situation.
The conference was inaugurated yesterday by UnionMinister of State for External affairs M J Akbar in thepresence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. PTI RPSRMT.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.