NEW DELHI: India's low-lying coastal regions are facing the threat of submergence due to rising sea levels, and the levels are increasing at a faster rate than previously reported, according to the latest World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) report.
The report indicates that the general trend of sea level rise is between 3.7 and 3.8 mm per year (with a margin of error of ± 0.3 mm). However, this rate has now increased to 4.00 mm per year within 50 km of the coast.
Human-caused global warming leads to sea level rise.
The greenhouse gas produced primarily by burning fossil fuels is melting ice sheets and glaciers, and the thermal expansion of warming seawater has led to a rise in the sea level.
It is now a major threat to the lives and livelihoods of coastal communities and low-lying island nations, and peninsular India.
The North Bay of Bengal region, which covers the whole of India’s eastern coast -- from West Bengal to Tamil Nadu -- records the second fastest rate of increasing sea level within 50 km of the coast after the Western tropical Pacific region, also known as the South China Sea.
The sea level rise is not uniform across every region. But, the warming of the Indian Ocean, both on the east and western coasts, is higher than the global average.
In 2024, the global mean sea level reached a record high of 3.4 ± 0.3 mm, whereas India’s western coast sea level rise is within 50 km is 3.9 ± 0.4 mm, and the eastern coast sea level rise is 4.0 ± 0.4 mm.
The WMO’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report stated that Asia is currently warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, fuelling more extreme weather and wreaking a heavy toll on the region.
The region was the second warmest year on record, with widespread and prolonged heat waves. It also said the warming trend between 1991–2024 was almost double that during the 1961–1990 period due to climate change.
The impact of rising heat caused the central Himalayas and Tian Shan, 23 out of 24 glaciers, to lose ice mass, leading to an increase in glacial lake outburst floods and landslides.
The report highlights a major natural disaster that happened in India in 2024, causing a heavy toll on human lives. It pointed out that changing climate caused major landslides in the Wayanad district of Kerala, killing more than 350 people on 30 July, following over 500 mm of rainfall in 48 hours.
Intense heatwaves in 2024 caused leading to more than 450 deaths in different parts of India.
Further, lightning killed about 1300 people in India in 2024. One deadly lightning event killed 72 people on 10 July across Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Jharkhand.