Gandhinagar: Gujarat’s 110-kilometre coastline is at risk of erosion because of climate change and the rising sea level, according to some research. According to another study, Ahmedabad is sinking 12 to 25 millimetres annually as a result of extensive groundwater extraction.

Ahmedabad is at danger of sinking. According to a study by Rakesh Dumka of the Institute of Seismology Research, Ahmedabad is sinking 12 to 25 millimetres annually as a result of the residents of Ahmedabad drawing subsurface water.

The city’s southern and western regions saw the highest rates of ground subsidence, which peaked at 25 millimetres per year, according to an ISR study. A second patch near the Ghuma and Bopal area in western Ahmedabad has also recorded a yearly sinking of 15 to 22 mm.

“According to our research, the subsidence rate is constant. Large-scale groundwater extraction causes soil compaction and vertical compression of aquifer sediments as a result of decreased pore pressure. In turn, this causes land to sink. As a result of surface fractures and fissures caused by land sinking, the infrastructure is eventually severely damaged “said ISR researchers

Dumka contends that in order to stop the sinking, the state and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation must provide an adequate supply of surface water and prohibit the extraction of subsurface water.

Erosion in Coastal Gujarat 

Ratheesh Ramakrishnan and other researchers from ISRO’s Space Application Center conducted research on the “Shoreline Change Atlas of the Indian Coast- Gujarat- Diu & Daman” in 2021 and discovered that “Gujarat’s 1052 km coast is stable, 110 km coast has eroded, and accretion is noted on a 49-km stretch.”

Additionally, it was noted that Gujarat state “is believed to have acquired an area of 208 hectares of land due to deposition of sediments, while the state has lost 313 hectares due to erosion” as a result of the rising sea level and climate change.

Another research by Krunal Patel and others, 42 years of observation, is that the “highest coastal erosion took place in Kutch district, state’s 45.9% coast is eroded.”

Patel and others have categorised the “Gujarat coast in four risk classes, 785 km fall in high to very high-risk level and 934 km in moderate to low-risk category due to anticipated rise in sea level.”

According to this research, “Among 16 coastal districts, 10 districts are reported to be suffering from erosion, highest in Kutch, followed by Jamnagar, Bharuch, Valsad, this is because of increasing Sea Surface Temperature (SST), in Gulf of Cambay (Khambhat) it is highest 1.50 C, A Saurashtra coast 1 C and the Gulf of Kutch 0.75 C in the last 160 years.”