When humans tamper with nature’s cycles, they must endure nature’s anger. According to researchers, Gujarat’s 110 km of coastline is at risk of erosion due to climate change and the rising sea level.
According to another study, Ahmedabad is sinking 12 to 25 mm annually as a result of the extensive groundwater extraction.
Ratheesh Ramakrishnan and other researchers from ISRO’s Space Application Center conducted research on the “Shoreline Change Atlas of the Indian Coast- Gujarat- Diu & Daman” in 2021, and they discovered that “Gujarat’s 1052 km coast is stable, 110 km coast has eroded, and accretion is noted on a 49-km stretch.”
In addition, it was noted that Gujarat State is estimated to have gained an area of 208 hectares of land due to deposition of sediments, while the state lost an area of 313 hectares due to erosion” as a result of the rising sea level and climate change.
The Kutch district experienced the highest rates of coastal erosion, accounting for 45.9% of the state’s coastline, according to Krunal Patel and colleagues’ 42 years of observational research.
Patel and others have categorised, “Gujarat coast in four risk class, 785 kms fall in high to very high risk level and 934 km in moderate to low risk category due to anticipated rise in sea level.”
According to this research, “Among 16 coastal districts, 10 districts are reported to be suffering from erosion, highest in Kutch, followed by Jamnagar, Bharuch, Valsad, this is because of increasing Sea Surface Temperature (SST), in Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat) it is highest 1.50 C,A Saurashtra coast 1 C and the Gulf of Kutch 0.75 C in the last 160 years.”
Villagers and locals have begun burning their fingers on the ground. According to Pradyumansinh Chudasama, a social worker and retired government employee, agricultural land and some parts of the village had been drowned under sea water in 1969, requiring the rehabilitation of 8000 residents of Mandvipura village in Ahmedabad district and 800 residents of Gundala village in Bhavnagar district.
He worries that other villages in the Ahmedabad and Bhavnagar district that are inhabited on the west bank of the Gulf of Cambay are also in danger. Bavalyari, Rajpur, Mingalpur, Khun, Jhankhi, Rahtalav, Kama Talav, and Navagam are the names of these villages. The majority of these villages are marooned during the monsoon due to floodwater and seawater.
In South Gujarat, Valsad and Navsari district’s many villages are at risk. Umargam taluka’s at least 15,000 people’s life and livelihood is at risk as sea water enters into the houses, narrated Sachin Machhi of Umargam taluka, a former president of the Taluka panchayat.
He believes that the Gujarat government should build a 22 km long protection wall in Umargam taluka in order to save the lives of the villagers, similar to how the Daman administration built a 7 to 10 km long protection wall along the sea coast.
Ahmedabad could sink if the villages are threatened by the rising sea. According to a study by Rakesh Dumka of the Institute of Seismology Research, Ahmedabad is sinking 12 to 25 millimetres annually as a result of the residents of Ahmedabad drawing underground water.
Dumka asserts that in order to stop the sinking, the state and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation must guarantee an adequate supply of surface water and prohibit the extraction of underground water.