Greens raise concern, NDMA is in the ‘process’ of preparing the suitable norms for mitigation measures

NEW DELHI, July 20 (The CONNECT) - About 34 percent of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion for the past 28 years, the government admitted in Parliament today.

The issue is quite significant for coastal areas such as Mumbai where massive coastal regulation violations have been reported. In Mumbai Metropolitan Region environmental lovers have been raising alarm against official planning agencies such as CIDCO leasing out coastal areas, wetlands and mangrove zones in the name of infrastructure development, NatConnect Foundation pointed out.

Union Minister of State Minister of State with Independent Charge of Earth Sciences Dr Jitendra Singh said, the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), is monitoring shoreline erosion since 1990, using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques.

A total of 6,907.18 km long coastline of the mainland has been analyzed till 2018 and it is observed that (33.6%) of the coastline is under varying degrees of erosion, the Minister said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

Responses to questions are considered as written replies when the issue is either not debated due to various reasons including disruption of business. Today, the question hour was disrupted by opposition members protesting against the imposition of GST on certain items of daily use such as milk, butter milk, butter and curd.

In a related question, Dr Jitendra Singh said, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) has not estimated the percentage of loss specifically due to coastal erosion, however, INCOIS has estimated Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) for the Indian coastline, which is a cumulative impact of seven coastal parameters. INCOIS has carried out Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) mapping to assess the probable implications of sea-level rise along the Indian coast.

This exercise has generated maps using seven input parameters: shoreline change rate, sea-level change rate, coastal elevation, coastal slope, coastal geomorphology, significant wave height and tidal range. An atlas composing 156 maps of the entire Indian coast on a 1:1 lakh scale was released in 2012.

Moreover, the 15th Finance Commission recommended the creation of National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) comprising Mitigation Fund at the National and State level (NDMF/SDMF) and Response Fund at the National and State level (NDRF/ SDRF) for the award period from 2021-22 to 2022-26.

The Finance Commission has also made specific recommendations for Mitigation Measures to Prevent Erosion under NDMF and Resettlement of Displaced People Affected by Erosion under NDRF. To operate these funds, the Commission also suggested that NDMA and/ or Ministry of Home Affairs may develop suitable norms for mitigation measures to prevent erosion and both the Union and the State Governments develop a policy to deal with the extensive displacement of people caused by coastal and river erosion.

At present, NDMA is in the process of preparing the suitable norms for mitigation measures and developing a policy to deal with the extensive displacement of people.