Kolkata: The Bengali government plans to build a strong and ecologically sustainable ‘bioshield’ along the coastline of the state and the Sunderbans archipelago to strengthen Kolkata and the entire country’s defense against destructive cyclone storms, such as Amphan, which is expected to increase.
because of climate change.
The plan is to build the embankment of the earth, plant 36 species of tough mangrove species and regulate the cover of geo-textiles in the embankment, and the second line of embankments in the concave coastline facing east, where the highest erosion.
The Chairman of the Minister of Mamata Banerjee itself proposed a multi-layer vegetation shield as a protective layer of a storm, erosion and the entry of salt water on the Bengal coast.
Last month, he had established a 24-member expert committee, led by the Chairperson of the Kalyan Rudra State Polution Control Board, a river expert.
Complete report by the committee, which came with the details of the plan, recently approved by the Head of Secretary H K Diwedi as the main guide for every work in the environmental sensitive zone.
The most severe climate change impact in the Delta Bengal region, where sea level rises are the highest globally.
The Global Mean Sea level increased at 3.6mm per year between 2006 and 2015.
The seafload off the coast of Bengal increased by around 4mm per year.
The impact of sea level rises in Sunderbans is increasingly accelerated due to slow soil subsidence, at 2.9mm per year.
It effectively makes sea level up more than 6.9mm per year.
The committee has proposed a “multi-layer multi-layer vegetation shield” three-tier shield along the sea coast, and two along the river embankment in Delta Bengal.
“36 species of mangrove and mangrove associations and blue and green algae are selected based on their resilience, the ability to propagate, height, salinity resistance and tidal influence,” Rudra said.
“Invasive species are avoided.
Vegetative shields, unlike intensive capital concrete embankments, systematically helping develop off the beach, which effectively acts as a breakwater, in addition to refilling the coast,” he added.
The department of irrigation and waterways has identified 378 different river stretches in the state, which has a total length of 559km, equally vulnerable, where 207 stretches, with a combined length of 324km, has been marked “very vulnerable”.
This is mostly a concave bank facing east, where violations of the highest embankment.
The second line of embankments has been planned in the zone to minimize the impact of cyclone and erosion.
If the old frontal embankment is located along the high tide, the buffer area between Dykes’s old and new ideally is 200m, and will be declared “zone without construction”, in accordance with coastal zone regulations, 2019.
Also, the coast disodiced in East Midnapore and Sunderbans have been Being very narrow and low that the breakwater zone has moved closer to the ground.
Because there are almost no areas along the southern front of Sagar Island to create the right bioshield, the barrier of artificial coral reefs has been proposed by experts from IIT-Madras, Rudra added.