Global Mean Sea Level Has Been Rising At An Unprecedentedly Rapid Pace In Recent Decades

New Delhi: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the recent report from Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC-AR6 WG1) has noted that the global mean sea level has been rising at an unprecedentedly rapid pace in recent decades.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the average sea level rise increased from 1.3 mm/year between 1901-1971 to 3.7 mm/year between 2006-2018. Dr. Singh said that the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai an attached office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) is monitoring the shoreline erosion since 1990 using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques. 6,632 km long Indian coastline of mainland has been analyzed from 1990 to 2018. It is noted that about 33% of the coastline is under varying degree of erosion, 26 % is of accreting nature and the remaining 41% is in a stable state. The observed changes may be induced by natural processes including Sea level rise and anthropogenic activities.

The Union Minister said that the Cyclone Warning Division (CWD) at India Meteorological Department (IMD), New Delhi acts as a Regional Specialised Meteorological Centre for monitoring, predicting and issuing warning services on tropical cyclones developing over north Indian Ocean. IMD has three Area Cyclone Warning Centres at Chennai, Kolkata & Mumbai and four Cyclone Warning Centres at Ahmedabad, Bhubaneswar, Thiruvananthapuram and Visakhapatnam for carrying out operational warning activities at state level and to carry out related research & development activities.