Vadodara: Gujarat boasts the longest coastline in the country and has paved roads for industrial development along the coastal area in the past few decades.
However, industrialization migration and consequences have contributed early to increase salinity in the state.
In his latest book entitled ‘Translation Return Ecology Beach Gujarat: Trends Of the last two decades’, city-based Gujarat (GES) ecology society tries to ensure how coastal dynamics have been changed for 23 years.
In their study, researchers in GES found that people’s livelihoods have changed, the sex ratio has been disrupted, urbanization has increased, all of which add salinity.
“Salinity of soil and groundwater has increased due to increased agricultural activities, too much use of ground water for irrigation purposes and household needs,” said Dr.
Jayendra Lakhmapurkar, director of GES.
He added when the population along the coastal area had increased, people went to dig Tubewell and the water table had fallen.
While the overall population of the country between 1991 and 2011 increased by 23%, in coastal areas, the population during the same period increased by 38%.
“In addition to groundwater exploitation, untreated river and wastewater also played a major role,” added Lakhmapurkar.
In 1960, the Land Development Board of Khar has found that 12,164 square kilometers of land in the state is saline which increased to 16,899 sq km in 1992 according to the research conducted by the Central Land Salinity Research Institute.
In 2019, the Indian Space Research Organization study found 18,073 Km Square Saline Land.
“When salinity increases, there will be influences on some health hazards such as kidney disease or fluorosis if the fluoride content is high,” he said.