Massive sea erosion in Karna, Kerala and Tamil Nadu: Govt

Government on Wednesday said a massive sea erosion has taken place in the coastal belt of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu due to various reasons including mining of beach sand. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Minister of State for Water Resources Vincent H Pala said a massive sea erosion has taken place in the coastline of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. "As per information available from the states, a length of 249.56 kilometre coastline in Karnataka, 478.14 km in Kerala and 641 km in Tamil Nadu has been reported effected by sea erosion due to sea waves, winds, tides, storms, mining of beach sand etc," he said when asked about the reason. The Minister also informed the House that governments of these three states have submitted "some project proposals" for consideration under National Coastal Protection Project for External Assistance. "These have been examined and forwarded to Asian Development Bank (ADB) for consideration," he said. Asian Development Bank has considered the "Project Preparatory Technical Assistance" with a grant of USD one million for preparing a sustainable coastal protection and management projects which include the states of Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra, the Minister added. Bureau Report