8-Dec-2022: Several studies initiated by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), to monitor the temporal and spatial distribution of marine litter along the Indian coasts

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, M/o Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that several studies have been initiated by Ministry of Earth Sciences through its attached

office National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), to monitor the temporal and spatial distribution of marine litter along the Indian coasts and adjacent seas and map the distribution of marine litter.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today, Dr. Jitendra Singh mentioned the steps that have been initiated for the formulation of the National Marine Litter Policy, like, the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change (MoEF&CC) has notified Plastic Waste Management Rules, 2016, and its amendments, which provide the statutory framework for plastic waste management in the country. The Plastic Waste Management (PWM) Rules, 2016, prohibits manufacture, import, stocking, distribution, sale and use of carry bags and plastic sheets less than fifty microns in thickness in the country. There is complete ban on sachets using plastic material used for storing, packing or selling gutkha, tobacco and pan masala. MoEF&CC had also issued Gazette notification on “Guidelines on Extended producer responsibility for Plastic Packaging” and Plastic Waste Management (Amendment) rules, 2022 on 16th February to all States/UTs and Ministries. Further, the Government of India has initiated several programmes such as “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”, National Mission for Clean Ganga and Smart Cities Mission” in order to develop clean and sustainable environment which contribute towards the Marine Litter Policy.

Dr. Singh said that the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), an attached office of MoES Conducted studies on quantifying the litter (mainly meso, macro and microplastics) in surface water and sediment from the shelf region of east coast of India. Samples from coastal water, beach and offshore sediment, and biota are analyzed for micro/ meso/ macro plastics pollution. An increase in the abundance of microplastics is observed along the east coast during the monsoon. The sampling stations nearer to the river mouth had higher numbers of microplastics concentrations. The Beach litter survey revealed that the maximum accumulation occurs in the backshore than in the intertidal zone. The results were published in the peer reviewed journal and accessible to the public.

8-Dec-2022: Real-time information on coastal water quality is shared with the respective State Pollution Control Boards

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology, M/o Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh said that The real-time information on coastal water quality is collected by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) and Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS) of Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) by deploying water quality buoys in the coastal waters of off-Chennai Kochi and off-Puducherry. The data is shared with the respective State Pollution Control Boards.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has instructed all the coastal State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) and the Pollution Control Committees (PCCs) of the Union Territories to take the assistance of NCCR for developing an action plan for prevention of coastal pollution. He said that NCCR has taken up several initiatives to augment the scientific and research capabilities. NCCR is establishing the state of art water quality laboratory at Visakhapatnam. Along with the traditional methods of identification and analysis of biological samples, advanced techniques like use of molecular tools are being employed. NCCR is collaborating with leading oceanographic institutes of the world.

31-Mar-2022: Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, about 33.6% of the coastline is under varying degree of erosion

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 a total of 6,632 km long Indian coastline of mainland has been analyzed from 1990 to 2018 and it is noted that about 33.6 % of the coastline is under varying degree of erosion.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), an attached office of MoES is monitoring the shoreline erosion since 1990 using remote sensing data and GIS mapping techniques.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the reasons for coastal erosions include increase in frequency of Cyclones and Sea level rise and anthropogenic activities such as construction of harbours, beach mining and building of dams. He said, there are 526 maps prepared for entire Indian coast for identifying areas vulnerable to coastal erosion in 1:25000 scale along with 66 district maps, 10 state /UT maps. A Report on “National Assessment of Shoreline Changes along Indian Coast” is released in July, 2018 and shared with various Central and State government Agencies and Stakeholders for implementing shore line protection measures. The digital and hard copy of all the Maps is released on 25th March, 2022.

Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had successfully demonstrated innovative coastal erosion mitigation measures at two pilot locations.

1. Puducherry Beach Restoration Project, Puducherry

The Submerged Reef has been implemented by MoES and beach nourishment is implemented by Govt of Puducherry. This helped in restoration of 1.5 km long city beach after 30 years and helped in improving tourism and fishing activities in addition to protection of coast during extreme cyclonic events.\

2. Kadalur Periya Kuppam, Tamil Nadu

An Offshore submerged dyke was implemented. This helped in protection of three fishing Villages during extreme cyclonic events and restored lost beach that is being used for landing of fishing boats and other fishing activities.

In addition, NCCR is also providing technical support to state governments of Kerala (Chellanam, Kollamkode, Poonthura, Varkala and Shangumugham) , Odisha (Ramayapatnam, Puri, Konark and Pentha), Andhra Pradesh (Vishakhapatnam) and Goa for implementation of coastal protection measures at vulnerable stretches.

The state wise details of erosion are given below:

30-Mar-2022: NCCR Chennai found more than 50% composition of marine litter was by single use plastics from 2018-2021

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 under the Pan-India coastal monitoring, beach clean-up activities are being undertaken by National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR), Chennai at regular intervals at various beaches of India, to assess the marine litter from 2018-2021 and it was found that more than 50% composition was contributed by single use plastics.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the Beach litter survey has further revealed that the maximum litter accumulation occurs in the backshore than in the intertidal zone. Moreover, urban beaches have higher accumulation rates than the rural beaches. He said, samples from coastal water, sediment, beach, and biota are analyzed for micro/ meso/ macro plastics pollution. An increase in the abundance of microplastics is observed along the east coast of India, during the monsoon. The stations nearer to the river mouth had higher numbers of microplastic concentrations.

The Minister said, NCCR, an attached office of MoES is undertaking research activities in quantifying litter in the beaches (macro, meso, & microplastics) in the coastal water, sediment, and different biota including commercial fishes, bivalves, and crustacea. Data on the level of micro-plastic pollution was generated for the east coast of India and the west coast is proposed to be assessed shortly. A National level workshop was conducted with the participants from various research institutes, stakeholders, and policymakers, industrial and academic experts to prepare a roadmap for formulating the National Marine litter Policy.

The objectives of the UN Clean Seas programme are- An urgent and concerted action against marine litter and plastic pollution by setting up a National marine litter action plan to quantify the total marine litter footprint in Indian coastal waters and to reduce the flow of plastics into the ocean and Creating awareness to the public on marine litter and plastic pollution.

10-Feb-2022: Coastal vulnerability due to sea erosion

National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR) an attached office of Ministry of Earth Sciences has undertaken vulnerability studies due to sea erosion at selected locations along the Indian coast. Extreme rainfall and associated flooding pose a threat to the coastal communities including fishermen and Integrated Flood Warning System (I-Flows) has been developed for two coastal cities (Chennai and Mumbai)to disseminate information on flood vulnerability in the event of heavy rains to the state government through IMD for mitigation actions. Further, NCCR has also developed a mobile application viz. ‘Thoondil’ along with the Department of Fisheries, Government of Tamil Nadu to disseminate information to the coastal fishermen in the event of hazards. In addition, the information on shoreline vulnerability due to erosion has being made available by NCCR to all coastal states for devising the appropriate mitigating measures to protect the coastline.

Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had successfully demonstrated the coastal erosion mitigation measures at Puducherry and Kadalur Periyakuppam village in Tamil Nadu.

Coastal stakeholders like fishermen and local administration/Government bodies were consulted during the development of tools like flood warning system and android based app for fishing community while implementing preventive measures.

7-Dec-2018: NCCR releases a report on beach pollution in India.

The National Centre of Coastal Research (NCCR) has released a report on beach pollution in India.

The NCCR conducted a qualitative analysis of the litter on six different beaches on the eastern and western coasts. The study notes that beach pollution is on rise in the country.

Tourism and fishing are the biggest culprits, contributing most of the plastic litter on beaches.

The study found that plastic litter from tourism alone accounted for 40%-96% of all beach litter.

At Chennai’s Elliot’s Beach, for instance, plastics left by tourists accounted for 40% of all the litter, while at Gopalpur in Odisha, it was as high as 96%. As for the other four beaches, plastics formed 66% of the overall litter on Fort Kochi Beach, 60% at Karnataka’s Karwar beach, 87% at Visakhapatnam’s R.K. Beach, and 81% at Andaman Island’s Rangachang beach.

After tourism, fishing was the next biggest source of litter. While fishing nets were a major contributor, the processing of fish on the beach also produced a lot of litter.

Also, the proportion of biomedical litter was high in urban areas, such as Elliot’s Beach and Fort Kochi Beach.

Other than the plastic litter dropped by tourists, similar waste from creeks and inlets made its way into the sea in the monsoon. Most of the litter consisted of plastic bottles, cutlery, and thermocol.