AHMEDABAD: Gujarat claims the state has the country’s longest coastline. School textbooks, government publications and Search engines have been mentioning that the state’s coastline is 1,600 kilometres long. However, according to the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), Gujarat’s coastline is 1,945.60 km long. However, the 537.5 km of coastline is eroding due to rising sea levels and climate change. The erosion level is the highest in India.
Union Minister of State for Environment, Forest, and Climate Change Ashwin Kumar Chauby stated in the Rajya Sabha on March 6 that the NCCR conducted a study of the country’s 6,632-km long coastline from 1990 to 2018, in which a total of 2,318.31, or 33.6 per cent, was vulnerable to erosion, 26.9 was under accretion (growing), and 39.6 was stable.
Gujarat’s coast is eroding at a rate of 27.6 per cent. According to the NCCR study, out of the 1,945.60-km long coastline in Gujarat, 537.5 km is undergoing erosion, 1,030.9 km is stable and 377.2 km has experienced accretion as of 2018.
But the state’s coastline was eroding by 512.3 km, according to a 2016 report. Over the course of two years, the eroded land has grown by more than 25 kilometres. According to a response given on April 6, the well-known beaches of Gujarat are on the verge of disappearing or losing their names in the near future.
Although Dwarka’s Shivrajpur Beach recently received Blue Flag beach accreditation, the beach’s shoreline is under threat. Shivrajpur beach is eroded by 32,692.74 sq.m and 2,396.77 square meters are accretion. Surat’s Umbrat Beach has 110,895.32 square meters of accretion. South Gujarat’s seashore in Tithal has an erosion of 69,910.56 square meters, while Surat District’s Suvali beach has an erosion of 688783.17 square meters.
Dabhri and Dandi have bank erosion of 16,401,49.52 square meters and 69,434.26 square meters, respectively. Kutch’s Mandvi accretion is 20471.44 in the seashore, which means it is filled with waste sediment.
Gujarat Congress spokesperson Parthiv Raj Kathwadia blamed the central government, saying, “The Union Ministry of Earth Sciences says the state’s coast is under threat. The central government has identified three sites for silt erosion and accretion prevention. Not a single site has been selected in Gujarat,” he added.
Ebbing coast
Gujarat’s coastline is 1,945.60-km
537.5 km of coastline is undergoing erosion, 1,030.9 km is stable
Shivrajpur beach is eroded by 32,692.74 sq.m
Surat’s Umbrat beach has 110,895.32 square meters of accretion