India has a vast coastline of more than 7500km. It is undoubtedly an essential part of India, geographically, economically and environmentally. While answering a question at the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament), the environment minister Babul Supriyo has brought to recent light that India’s sea levels along its coast have risen by 8.5cm ever since 1950, with an average increase of 1.77mm per year.

These are some alarming figures. UN's Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already warned in their report that global sea levels are set to rise by at least 1m by 2100 if carbon emissions go unchecked, submerging hundreds of cities, including Mumbai and Kolkata, two of India’s mega-cities. The port Diamond Harbour in West Bengal also recorded an enormously high annual growth rate of sea level at 5.16mm per year. This was followed by Kandla (Gujarat) at 3.18mm per year and Haldia (West Bengal) at 2.89mm per year. The image attached shows these level rise rate of India’s 10 important ports.

The union minister of state has also claimed that the rising sea levels could make coastal inundation along low-lying areas during storm surges or flooding, and thus, the actual area that could be inundated due to rising sea levels needs to be evaluated, based on their elevation above the mean sea level. For example, a higher high rate of sea level increase at Diamond Harbour is also due to the larger land subsidence happening there. The same may apply to Kandla, Haldia and Port Blair as well. And hence, it can't be attributed to climate change that these changes are taking place. 

Whatever maybe the reason, what our concern is the rise in sea level. The IPCC report on the worldwide risk that sea level rise potentially holds assumes that India will face almost seven times more risk than the previous estimates due to rising sea levels. It is a do or die for the world. With each passing day, we are turning situations perilous for us to exist and if we don’t take control, nothing can stop the jeopardy of our future.

SOURCES:

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/india-witnessing-average-sea-level-rise-of-1-7mm/year/articleshow/72134279.cms

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/sea-level-along-indian-coast-rose-by-8-5-cm-in-last-50-years-environment-minister-1620547-2019-11-19

https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/sea-level-rise-reach-hazy/cid/1720510