Daryadev will gradually swallow the west coast of Gujarat

- Hotline: Bhalchandra Jani

- The coast where the sea has started moving towards the land is 3 km. Kutch, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Valsad districts are the main ones.

Caution! The economic capital of the country, the megacity of Mumbai and the coastal cities of Gujarat, is being swallowed up by the Indian Ocean at a slow pace. The fact is that a team of the world's top scientists, NASA, has been monitoring the North Pole (Antarctica for the last forty years). Recently, NASA received a shocking report that a glacier four hundred meters (approximately 206.5 feet) long at the North Pole is melting at a slow but steady pace. When it melts completely, the current sea level will rise by three meters (about ten feet) with the rest of the world. This prediction is considered really frightening.

This is also a warning bell for our Gujarat. For Gujarat, which has a coastline of about 1,200 km, it is a matter of concern that coastal erosion is happening very fast. Coastal geography and mapping may change in the next few years, if not given enough attention, especially in coastal areas.

The study found that as a result of sea level rise of 1.50 mm per annum between the ages of 18 and 19, the coastal area of ​​Maharashtra and Gujarat is estimated to be 12.5 sq. Km. Km of land had come under water. During the same period, a total of 2.31 sq. Km. This is only half of the sea water that has returned to the land.

The study divided the country's coastline into four stations: Mumbai, Kochi, Chennai and Visakhapatnam. The Mumbai station covers the coasts of Maharashtra and Gujarat. Covering the southern part of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the Chennai station alone had a low sea level of 4.5 sq. Km. Km of land was obtained. ‘Various studies have attributed global warming to rising sea levels.

The west coast of India is a straight and smooth shore without any breaks or curves. There are few creeks, bays and creeks. The only saltwater lagoon in the form of lagoons or backwaters where the sea has penetrated behind the shore is only the Malabar shore. The rest of the west coast is rocky somewhere. The other is flat sand and the sea has a continental shelf for miles after leaving the coast and has a depth of less than one hundred left (fathoms). Once upon a time this continental shelf was out of water and overgrown with dense forests. Probably due to the rising sea level, the land along with these forests sank into the sea and the forests were covered with silt.

Gujarat has the highest continental shelf in all of India. The depth above it is not more than a hundred yards. A long mountain range stretches from the south of Saurashtra to the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. There is a deep valley between the mountain range and the continental shelf, in which the sea is about 1,100 yards (1 ounce equals six feet) deep. Today the mountains of the Western Ghats are near the sea shore but in the past there was a wide land to the west of this mountain range.

Earthquakes have been raising and lowering the coast. In Saurashtra, a cliff with sea shells has come out of the water due to the rising coast on the west coast. On the other hand, in the last century, the coast of Kutch was submerged by an earthquake. For a long time, the fagots of his coat were visible outside.

In recent times, the sea has come near Indreshwar in Porbandar and the caves below Indreshwar have been destroyed and eaten away.

The situation in Kutch is more serious. Kutch has the highest coastline of 6 km in the state. The coastline is overcrowded. The second number comes from Jamnagar and the third from Bharuch. 150 km The coastline in the coastal area extends towards the land at mid-level. It covers most of Kutch and Bharuch districts. The shoreline where the sea has just started moving towards the land is 3 km. Kutch, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar and Valsad districts are the main ones. The sea water is coming to the villages located at a distance of half a kilometer from the shore.

On the other hand, Daryadev has also caused upheaval in South Gujarat. The Arabian Sea is rapidly advancing towards coastal villages like Hingrajmora, Bhathimora and Khutamora off the coast of Valsad. In the last 3 years, the sea has advanced by 3 kilometers. At one time a total of 15 villages existed in this area, today only one coastal village with an estimated 3 houses and a population of 150 has survived. Other villages have been flooded by sea water and are submerged in high tides. At a time when people have been forcibly relocated from these villages to Hingraj-Kosamba village, there is a demand that the government should immediately build strong defense lamps to save the coastal village which has a 40-year-old historical temple of Vekaria Hanumanji.

Departure of sea level towards coastal lands from Dahej to Umragam in South Gujarat for human population

Is worrying. Villages like Dumas, Bhimpore and Sultanabad in Surat have never had tidal water before. For the last four years, the village has been flooded with large tidal waters of Naliyeri Poonam. There is an atmosphere of fear in the coastal villages as the sea is still rushing to swallow the land. Even a protection wall built at a cost of crores of rupees for security is not able to withstand the powerful waves.

Dumas, Bhimpore, Sultanabad villages on the border of Surat city are infiltrated by the high tide.

These details have come out in a satellite survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. About six inches of land in the Gulf of Khambhat, near the coastal highway from Ahmedabad to Bhavnagar, is being washed away daily by sea water. In the last ten years, about two and a half kilometers of land has been washed away due to this land being washed away daily and two villages named Mandavipura in Ahmedabad district and Gundala in Bhavnagar district have been completely washed away and its location is now only on the map.

The matter is clear when comparing old and new images from a satellite survey taken by the Indian Institute of Remo Sensing. In the Gulf of Khambhat between 19th and 19th, not only half a kilometer of land has been eroded from the six-kilometer-long and six-kilometer-wide area near Dholera.

The way coastal erosion is happening in Gujarat used to happen in the Netherlands as well. However, only 3 inches of space was eroded during the year. However, at a cost of crores of rupees, the authorities there were aware of the matter.

Details have come to light that three large-scale projects are also being severely affected due to the erosion of this land by the sea in Dholera panth. But it has lost 2,000 acres of land due to erosion. Similarly, Nirma has cautiously started its salt works at a distance of two kilometers from the coast, considering the ten-kilometer stretch of 1,200 acres of the company's soda ash plant in Nir. Yet the sea is moving very fast towards it.

The government has not yet taken adequate measures to ensure the safety of coastal residents. The situation is getting serious. The seas we have today were not in the past and will not be in the future. The change we are seeing now with the ocean invasion is just a small part of the age-long process. However, it is time for the government to wake up in time.