Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (MS)

Mangaluru, Jul 8: All have heard the story of hen laying golden eggs. Similarly, any public issues, which are like golden eggs to the people's representatives and officials, never get resolved. Sea erosion in coastal areas is one such long standing problem that causes hardship to residents living near the sea during monsoon.

For the past 10 years, crores of rupees have been gobbled under the name of finding a solution for this issue by people's representatives and officials. Around 33% of India’s mammoth coastline of 7,516 km has sea erosion problems. However, the intensity of this issue has increased since some years in the districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi. Karnataka has a coast line of 320 km and most of it has sea erosion problems during monsoon.

Illegal constructions in CRZ area, encroachment of river and sea has resulted in increase of intensity of sea erosion. Ullal, Someshwara and Ucchila are prone to sea erosion. Every year more than 20 houses are washed away into the sea.

Since 2010, under the ADB project, the work of putting rocks into the sea is going on to prevent sea erosion. The severity is increased at Battapadi beach of Ucchila on the outskirts of Mangaluru. Already Rs 160 crore are spent through ADB. Two reefs over an area of 200 meters at a cost of 110 crore, 10 burns at a cost of Rs 30 crore are set up at Uchila Battapadi limits. Port department has also put huge black stones to prevent the sea washing away houses built on the sea shore. However, so far flawless planning of placing the stones is still not done.

Already, crores of rupees worth stones are put on sea beach by the contractors as they have an understanding with the officials. Some contractors have not yet received the money for the work they have done. No guideline is drawn by the government to find a permanent solution to this issue. Locals say that putting stones on the beach is not the solution to the problem. They are of the opinion that corrective measures need to be taken after studying the wave pattern of the sea at particular zones.

The only place where the sea erosion is stopped is the Peribailu area of Someshwara. Port department had made two projects at a cost of Rs five crore in order to prevent the sea waves and the sea erosion has stopped completely at Peribailu. Locals say that the same method needs to be implemented at Ucchila and Battapadi.