A pilot project taken up by the State government at Ullal to prevent sea erosion has gained national importance as four States are closely watching it for its outcome, according to a senior official.
The project involves placing sand-filled heavy geo-textile bags or non-woven bags in layers along the beach. It is technically called building in-shore berms.
P. Channappa Naik, Project Director, Karnataka Sustainable Coastal Protection and Management Investment Programme, told presspersons here on Tuesday that it had been taken up under the guidance of the Central Power and Water Research Station (CPWRS), Pune. Scientists from the station had suggested building four 120-metre long in-shore berms. “They are ‘T’ gryone like structures” he said, adding “those are all the perpendicular structures constructed all along the shore line.”
Mr. Naik said that sand bags had been laid to the extent of 70 metres on an experimental basis now. Of them, 10-metre long bags were washed away recently.
He said that such berms should be eco-friendly and help aqua life too.
“Now, sand accretion is taking place and aqua life such as crabs and algae are also seen on that stretch where sand bags have been laid on an experimental basis. Though the results are encouraging, there is a need to wait for four-five years to know the complete outcome of the project,” he said.
A team of its scientists from CPWRS would visit Ullal shortly to study its “behaviour.”
If it was successful, three more such inshore berms would be constructed along Ullal shoreline. Other coastal states such as Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala and Goa were closely watching and waiting for the outcome of Ullal pilot project to implement inshore berms in their states to tackle sea erosion, he said.
Mr. Naik said building inshore berms was one among the four-components of the project to tackle sea erosion within a 8-km shoreline of Ullal.
The other three components were rehabilitation of Ullal breakwaters and construction of off-shore reefs.
