Rising sea levels caused by climate change has displaced people from the coasts of Odisha with 16 villages having already gone under seawater, informed the State government on March 21, 2023.
The shoreline management plan prepared under the Integrated Coastal Zone Management project says there was a possibility of coastal erosion in Satabhaya area of Kendrapara district, Talasahi, Udayapur, the northern side of Budhabalanga in Balasore, Paradip port area of Jagatsinghpur, the bank of Jamuna, the beach areas of Puri, the northern part of Gopalpur port and the north of Bahuda River in Ganjam.
Responding to a question raised by BJP MLA Mohan Majhi, Forest, Environment and Climate Change Minister Pradip Amat told the Assembly that 16 villages had already been submerged in sea water while 247 faced displacement due to a rise in sea level.
Some villagers of erosion-hit Podampetta and Ramayapatna village of Ganjam district had already been rehabilitated to a safer place, said Mr. Amat. A sea wall has been erected using a geotextile tube at Pentha in Kendrapara district in order to prevent erosion in the face of the advancing Bay of Bengal.
Odisha was the first State in the country to have come up with a Climate Change Action Plan under which disaster mitigation plans were executed in convergence with 11 different departments.
Mitigation plans
As per the action plan, the Odisha government has taken up the creation of new forests using scientific methods, tried to reduce the usage of water in agriculture and brought changes in building construction codes.
Other steps such as rainwater harvesting, emphasis on greening buffer areas of industries, bringing down pollution level and introduction of public transport in all corners of the State, are being taken to face the challenge.
As per a recent study, a quantitative assessment of the present and future potential threat of coastal erosion along the Odisha coast using geospatial tools and statistical techniques was carried out by researchers from different universities. As much as 55.85% of the 480-km long Odisha coastline is expected to show accretion while 44.15% would show erosion or a constant trend by 2050.
As per the shoreline change analysis, the mean shoreline change is about 0.67 m/year, indicating that 52.47% (227.4 km), 34.70% (150.4 km), and 12.83% (55.6 km) of the total Odisha coastline have exhibited erosion, accretion, and stability, respectively.
Published - March 21, 2023 07:14 pm IST
