20% of India's coastline faced erosion during 1972-2000: Govt

Twenty per cent of the country's total coastline witnessed erosion between 1972 to 2000, the government said today.
In a written response to a question in Lok Sabha, Y S Chowdary, Minister of State in the Ministry of Earth Sciences, said as per a study conducted using satellite data acquired during 1972-2000, the country has a coastline of 12,095 kms during this period.
This includes length of coastlines of creek, bays, deltas and estuaries.
Of this, nearly 3,726 kms of coastline has been eroded.
Gujarat has the largest coastline of nearly 2,156 kms of which 933 kms was found to have faced erosion.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which have a coastline of 803 kms has seen 286 km of erosion, but on the other hand 317 kms of its coastline saw accretion during this period.
When contacted, M Rajeevan, Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, said this reflects the alarming level of erosion of country's coastline.