Context

As per a latest report by the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences, 27% of coastline expanded between 1990 and 2018.

Key-highlights of the situation

• As much as 32 per cent of India’s coastline underwent sea erosion and 27 per cent of it expanded between 1990 and 2018.
• The country’s coastline is 6,631.53 kilometres long:

• Erosion: 2,135.65 kilometres was subject to varying degrees of erosion
• Expansion: 1,760.06 km expanded during this period.
• Stable: Nearly 2,700 km of the coastline is stable.  

 Factors and Causes of Soil Erosion

• Human Induced factors
• Faulty farming systems
• deforestation caused by overgrazing
• clearance of land for agricultural purposes
• construction, dam construction
• diversion of the natural course of rivers
• mining activities

Rainfall Intensity and Runoff

• The impact of raindrops break up the soil and water build-up creates runoff, taking sediment with it.

Why more Erosion in eastern coast rather than western coast?

• The eastern coast underwent more erosion due to frequent cyclonic activities from Bay of Bengal in the past three decades, compared to the western coast, which remained largely stable.