Govt formulated plans to rehabilitate people from low-lying coastal areas: Jitendra Singh

New Delhi: The central government has formulated plans to rehabilitate people from low-lying coastal areas who may be adversely impacted due to rising sea levels in the coming decade, Union Minister of State for Earth Sciences Jitendra Singh informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has prepared a draft policy on "Mitigation and Rehabilitation measures for people displaced by Coastal and River Erosion" to deal with the extensive displacement of people caused by coastal and river erosion. Singh pointed out that the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) has carried out Coastal Vulnerability Index (CVI) mapping to assess the probable implications of sea-level rise along the Indian coast.

He said this exercise has generated maps using seven input parameters: shoreline change rate, sea-level change rate, coastal elevation, coastal slope, coastal geomorphology, significant wave height and tidal range.

A report on "National Assessment of Shoreline Changes along Indian Coast" was shared with various central and State government agencies and stakeholders for implementing shoreline protection measures. Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) through its institutes is also providing technical solutions and advice to the State Governments and UTs to deal with coastal erosion threats.

According to the Ministry of Earth Sciences, National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai is monitoring shoreline erosion since 1990 using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques. Totally, the 6907.18 km long coastline of the mainland has been analyzed for the period from 1990 to 2018. It is noted that 33.6 per cent of the coastline is under varying degree of erosion, 26.9 per cent is of accreting nature and the remaining 39.5 per cent is in a stable state.
The Minister informed that the 15th Finance Commission has recommended the creation of the National Disaster Risk Management Fund (NDRMF) and State Disaster Risk Management Fund (SDRMF) comprising Mitigation Fund at the National and State level (NDMF/SDMF) and Response Fund at the National and State level (NDRF/ SDRF).

The Commission has also made specific recommendations for "Mitigation Measures to Prevent Erosion" under NDMF and "Resettlement of Displaced People Affected by Erosion" under NDRF. (ANI)