ગુજરાતી
English
Ahmedabad, November 30, 2025
A situation is developing where 1,000 villages and 22 cities along the Gujarat coast will be submerged.
Coastal erosion is occurring rapidly in Gujarat. If areas like the Gulf are not properly addressed, the geography and map of the coast may change in the next few years.
Between 1878 and 1993, sea levels have risen at a rate of 1.20 mm per year. Approximately 16.96 sq km of land along the coastlines of Maharashtra and Gujarat has been submerged, affecting 50 percent of India’s land area.
The state of Gujarat has the largest continental shelf in India. A long mountain range stretches from south of Saurashtra to the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean. A deep valley lies between this mountain range and the continental shelf.
In 1801, the western coast of Kutch was submerged by the sea due to an earthquake. The sea level rose near Indreshwar in Porbandar.
On the Kutch coast, the state’s longest stretch of coastline, 62 km, has risen to dangerous levels.
Jamnagar is second, and Bharuch is third. 170 km of coastline has risen landward at the midpoint. The districts of Kutch and Bharuch comprise the largest area.
The sea has now risen 478 km, encompassing the districts of Kutch, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Amreli, Bhavnagar, and Valsad. Seawater is entering villages located more than one and a half kilometers from the coast.
The Arabian Sea is rapidly advancing towards coastal villages like Hingraj Mora, Bhathimora, and Khutamora in Valsad. The sea has advanced by about 2 kilometers in the last 25 years. There were once 19 villages in this area. Now, the number of villages has dwindled. Seawater has entered villages. During high tide, these villages are submerged. The residents have been forced to resettle in the villages of Hingraj and Kosamba.
Reservoir walls must be built.
In South Gujarat, sea levels have risen toward coastal lands from Dahej to Umargam.
If sea levels rise by 1 to 2 meters over the next 30-50 years, 10 to 15 percent of Gujarat’s coastline could be submerged. Cities, villages, and fishing settlements could be submerged. The 44 islands and delta areas located in the sea will be most affected. Cher plantations and cement walls must be built. Villages and cities will have to be evacuated.
Dangerous Areas
Land Subsidence and Bank Erosion
Kutch District
Lakhpat, Mandvi, Abdasa, Kori Creek area, and Cher forests have been submerged.
Devbhoomi Dwarka – Porbandar
In the Karkadi, Okha, and Miya Pani areas, the sea has sometimes inundated by 20–50 meters.
Bhavnagar – Amreli
In Talaja, Ghogha, Rajula Victoria Port, Jiva, and surrounding villages are being submerged.
Surat – Valsad
Industries, ports, and harbors near Hazira, Umargam, and Daman have disrupted the natural balance.
Villages like Dumas, Bhimpore, and Sultanabad in Surat had never experienced tidal water before, but for the past four years, these villages have been inundated by high waves from the Naliyeri Poonam.
In Moti Danti village near Valsad, the entire village population had to be relocated due to rising sea water.
Dumas, Bhimpore, and Sultanabad villages on the outskirts of Surat city have been submerged by high tide water.
This information comes from satellite surveys conducted by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing. Near the Ahmedabad-Bhavnagar Coastal Highway, approximately six inches of land in the Gulf of Khambhat is being eroded by salty seawater every day.
Due to this daily erosion, approximately two and a half kilometers of land have been eroded over ten years, and two villages, Mandvipura in Ahmedabad district and Gundala in Bhavnagar district, have been completely washed away.
This is clearly visible when comparing old and new images from satellite surveys by the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing.
Between 1988 and 1998, half a kilometer of land has been eroded from an area six kilometers long and six kilometers wide on the Dholera side of the Gulf of Khambhat. In the last ten years, two and a half kilometers of land has been eroded.
In the Netherlands, only seven inches of land was eroding each year, which is now flowing into the sea.
Three projects in the Dholera area are also being severely affected by the sea. Erosion has reduced two thousand acres of land.
Nirma has resumed its salt operations as a precaution, focusing on the 10-kilometer stretch of the company’s soda ash plant in Nir, leaving a distance of two kilometers from the coast.
The government has yet to take adequate action.
Impact on the World
After forty years of research on the North Pole, the American organization NASA, a team of the world’s top scientists, has announced that
a 400-meter-long iceberg at the North Pole is melting. When it completely melts, the current water level of all seven oceans around the world will rise by three meters—approximately ten feet.
Several studies have attributed the sea level rise to global warming.
The continental shelf stretches for miles in the ocean. This continental shelf was once above water, and dense forests grew on it. As sea levels rose, the land, along with the forest, was submerged, and the forest was buried in silt.
