Climate change and coastal ecosystem in India: Issues in perspectives

Climate change related Sea Level Rise (SLR) increases the vulnerability of coastal ecosystems by posing threat to many coastal cities, urban centres and coastal population in developed as well as in developing countries. Coastal areas are predominantly rich in resources, easily accessible and facilitate infiltration of people and investments. The 8118 km long coastline in India is characterized as fragile and highly productive. Rapid urban development, increase in the number of polluting industrial units, the growth of luxury tourism and the expansion of industrial shrimp aquaculture have considerable socioeconomic and environmental impacts on the coast of India. According to Census 2011, nearly 48% of India’s population from coastal regions is currently living in urban areas. More than fifty percent of towns (2661) and 3827 villages are situated in the coastal regions of India. 64.45% of slum population from nine coastal states in the country also lives in poverty. Coastal states receive more than 60% of investment, 68% of total factories in India exist in coastal states. However, the frequent occurrence of coastal disasters as a result of climate change has many impacts in terms of human lives lost, destroyed infrastructure, ecological damage, disrupted social networks, displaced coastal fishing communities from their traditional living and occupational spaces. In this paper issues pertaining to climate change in coastal areas in general and India’s coastal areas in particular are discussed based on literature and information collected from various secondary sources.