After raising panic among residents and authorities due to unprecedented surge last month leading to collapse of part of beach road near Kursura Submarine Museum, the sea took a backward march on Tuesday forcing regular beachgoers to watch it with wry amusement.
“We had a long stretch of beachfront for a change like Marina and famed beaches of Goa,” remarked Soma Sekhar, a cable TV operator.
The backward march fuelled speculation among the public about its probable cause.
When contacted, Dr. V.S.N. Murthy, Principal Scientist in-charge of National Institute of Oceanography, Visakhapatnam Regional Centre, told The Hindu that it could be due to lowest low tide this season as it occurred on fourth day after new moon. “The general trend is to have highest or lowest tide after new moon,” he said and cautioned people not to venture into sea as the current level would be very high during low tides.
A group of NIO scientists will measure the change in a day or two.
When the sea colour turned red last month, the NIO had ruled it out as a result of industrial pollution.
The sea surge exactly a month ago set off speculation in various circles that it was due to sea erosion.
Several factors were attributed, which include constructions by Visakhapatnam Port, installation of submarine museum on the beach and neglecting the need to nourish the beach from Coastal Battery onwards towards the museum.
Green activists had raised a ruckus over violation of coastal regulation zone guidelines by the builders’ lobby.
Following the furore after the sea surge, GVMC, Visakhapatnam Port, VUDA and others made a joint inspection and decided to take up ad hoc as well as permanent remedial measures to arrest beach erosion. They also sought experts’ opinion from Central Power and Water Research Institute, Pune and IIT-Madras.
