As the Bay of Bengal continues to swallow huge swathes of land once part of the seashore and pristine beaches on India's east coast, Tamil Nadu is among the worst affected states. It has 'permanently' lost 1,802 hectares of inland area to the gigantic sea waves at 22 locations, identified as 'erosion hotspots', according to the latest shoreline changes assessment report by the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), an arm of Ministry of Earth Sciences.
Some of these hotspots where long tracts of seashore that have vanished are located near Chennai. Districts such as Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram have about eight such locations out of the total 22.
A deeper analysis of the NCCR study, which was based on satellite data acquired from 1990 to 2018, paints a grim picture: nearly 60% of the 125 km of coastline of these two districts is facing an immense loss of land. In Kancheepuram, 51 km out of 84.41 km of the coast is facing an onslaught of the sea while 18 km out of 40.97 km in Tiruvallur is under threat.
Experts are dismayed at the pace at which the beaches are doing a Houdini act. Protecting the beaches in this region is crucial as districts such as Kancheepuram are boosted with fresh water coastal aquifers that are critical for region's water security. Chennai's 20% drinking water requirement is met by groundwater.
This story is from the January 19, 2023 edition of The New Indian Express.
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This story is from the January 19, 2023 edition of The New Indian Express.
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