NGT forms committee to study the impact of sea level rise

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on has formed a committee to study the impact of sea level rise on islands and to protect them from submergence, erosion, saline ingression, flooding and other adverse environmental aspects.

The order was passed in case registered suo motu by the NGT, based on an article published in the The Hindu, titled ‘India’s sinking islands’.

A bench of chairperson, Justice Sheo Kumar Singh, judicial member, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi, and expert member, Professor A Senthil Veil noted that India’s average temperature had risen by around 0.63° Celsius between 1901 and 2021, as per a response from the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

“This rise in temperature is largely on account of Green House Gases induced warming, partially offset by anthropogenic aerosols,” the tribunal noted.

The NGT further observed that the rise in temperature has resulted in the melting of glaciers, rise in sea levels, changing precipitation patterns, and increasing tendency of weather and climate extremes on a global scale

In view of the same, the tribunal has now constituted a committee comprising the Directors of the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) at Goa, the National Centre for Sustainable Coastal Management at Chennai, the National Institute of Ocean Technology at Chennai and the Survey of India, Dehradun.

The committee has been instructed to study the impact of the rise in sea levels on islands and to frame a policy with measures to protect the islands.

The NGT had taken up the matter after reported that multiple islands along the Indian Coast, as well as some islands in rivers, were susceptible to erosion and submergence.

It highlighted that one of the primary factors contributing to the submergence of these islands was sea level rise, which is a consequence of global warming. This rise in sea levels led to the intrusion of saline water into the agricultural and drinking water sources on these islands, the report further stated.

The committee tasked with studying the issue has been ordered to submit its report to the tribunal within three months time.

The matter will be taken up next by the NGT on October 13.