42% of Tamil Nadu coastline faces erosion, says NCCR study

CHENNAI: Nearly one-third of India’s coastline underwent sea erosion including 422 km of TN’s shoreline between 1990 and 2018, according to a study by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. According to the study titled, ‘National Assessment of Shoreline: Changes along Indian Coast’, India coastline is 6,631.53 km long. Over 2,135 km had been eroded in varying degrees and 1,760.06 km expanded during this period. Nearly 2,700 km is stable. In TN, nearly 42.7% or 422.94 km out of the total 991.47 km is facing erosion (second highest in India). Gujarat has the longest coastline of 537 km under erosion (total shoreline 1,945 km). Releasing the report at a workshop on Marine Spatial Planning for TN on Tuesday, Highways and Minor Port Minister EV Velu said, “Protection of the State’s coast is an important duty of the government, since various sectors including fishing, shipping, tourism and environment depend on it.”