India's coastal region sea level rises 1.29mm per Year

The sea level around India's coastal region is rising at an average of 1.29 millimetres per year over the last 40 to 50 years, according to a study presented to the Parliament today. The Minister of State in the Ministry of Planning, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Dr. Ashwani Kumar gave this information Thursday to the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Parliament, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) reported. Studies suggest that sea level reveals a high variability along the Indian coast line. The analysis of past tide gauge records for the Indian coastline regions gives an average sea level rise of 1.29 mm/year for the last 40-50 years. The local sea level rise at key cities from the Indian Tide gauge data indicates the observed trends during the past century. The cities are:- Cochin (1939-1991) = 1.2 mm/year;. Vishakhapatnam (1937-1991) = 0.9 mm/year;. Mumbai (Bombay) (1870-1990) = 0.8 mm/year; Sunderban (1985-2000) = 3.14 mm/year. Sea level rise is a relatively slow phenomenon occurring in the background of more dramatic manifestations like storm surges and tidal variations, normal deltaic subsidence, coastal erosion and siltation of river channels along the coastline. The Indian coastline is facing coastal erosion. However, it has not been established that this erosion is only due to rise in sea level. All of the projected scenario analysis of coastal inundation carried out is on the assumption that sea level changes due to oceanic circulation changes caused by changing wind patterns due to the rise in the concentration of atmospheric green house gases that with increased intensity of tropical cyclones generating 1-2m higher amplitude storm surges with varied extent of inland inundation at selected locations viz. Nagapattinum, Kochi, Paradip. The Government of India has established 26 tide gauges to continuously monitor the pattern of sea level changes all along the Indian coastline, the PIB report said. All of these tide gauge stations are transmitting data in real time to the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad under the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES). Appropriate protection measures arising out of the coastal erosion are addressed jointly by India's respective state governments and the Central Water Commission.