A study conducted by ocean engineering scientists at IIT Kharagpur shows that 10 islands among the 36 islands of Lakshadweep archipelago might have more than 60 percent land loss in the next 30 years because of the continuous and extreme rise of seawater level in the last 15 years.
The study published in the current issue of international magazine Elsevier (Regional Studies in Marine Science), has been posted by the Department of Science and Technology on its website. It was conducted on the ten most vulnerable islands of the archipelago and shows that there will be 70 percent to 80 percent land loss in eight of the ten islands by 2035. The other two islands will also have a land loss of close to 40 percent.
“The main problem in conducting the study was that there was neither any ‘Tide-Gauge’ or eWater level monitoring system’ in Lakshadweep and so we had to depend on the satellite data which was only available from 1993. We also used two best-performing climate models – the GFDL Model of USA and Miroc – a Japanese model.” Prasad K. Bhaskaran, a faculty member of IIT-KGP’s Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture and the principal investigator of the project, told IANS over the phone.
The study mentions that the rise is much higher in the Arabian Sea than in the Bay of Bengal because the latter’s salinity is lower because of many freshwater rivers opening into it. Hence, the Lakshadweep islands are at great risk compared to India’s other archipelago, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
It also found that capital Kavaratti will be 70 percent affected. Deep signs of damage have also been noticed at the islands’ lone airport in the southernmost tip of Agatti, which has started getting dangerously inundated.
The study has been conducted by Aysha Jennath, Athira Krishnan, Saikat Kumar Paul, Prasad K Bhaskaran, jointly from the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning and Department of Ocean Engineering and Naval Architecture, IIT Kharagpur, with support from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India under the Climate Change Programme (CCP).
