Explain the causes and effects of coastal erosion in India. What are the available coastal management techniques for combating the hazard ?
Approach · directive: “explain / what”
What it asks · Explain the natural and human causes of coastal erosion in India, its effects on people and ecosystems, and the hard, soft and policy tools available to manage it.
The question has 3 parts — answer each
- Explain the causes of coastal erosion in India, natural and human
- Explain its effects on people and ecosystems
- What coastal management techniques are available to combat it: hard, soft and policy tools
Open with · Coastal erosion is the loss of shoreline to waves, currents and storms; the National Centre for Coastal Research found that about a third of India's mainland coast (33.6% over 1990 to 2018) is eroding to varying degrees.
Cover
- Natural causes: wave action, longshore currents, storms and cyclones, sea-level rise, tides and loss of sediment supply.
- Human causes: dams and sand mining that cut river sediment, ports and harbours that block sand drift, seawalls that shift erosion elsewhere, destruction of mangroves and dunes, and coastal construction.
- Effects on people: loss of land, homes and livelihoods, especially of fishing communities, saltwater intrusion, damage to roads, ports and tourism, and displacement.
- Effects on ecology: loss of beaches, mangroves and wetlands, damaged turtle habitats and greater flood and storm-surge risk.
- Hard techniques: seawalls, groynes, breakwaters, revetments and offshore reefs; effective locally but costly and may move erosion down the coast.
- Soft and policy measures: beach nourishment, mangrove and dune restoration, shelterbelts, Coastal Regulation Zone rules, shoreline mapping, integrated coastal zone management and managed retreat.
Close with · Working with natural buffers, curbing sand mining and planning coastal settlements with shoreline data offer the most lasting protection.
Question: UPSC's CS (Main) 2022, GS Paper III — paper ↗. Approach: Minimalist IAS, checked 30 Sept 2026 (how we verify) — UPSC publishes no model answers. ·
Model answer · 240 words (UPSC limit 250) · Minimalist IAS
Coastal erosion is the loss of shoreline to waves, currents and storms; the National Centre for Coastal Research found that about a third of India's mainland coast (33.6% over 1990 to 2018) is eroding to varying degrees.
Causes
- Natural: wave action, longshore currents, storms and cyclones, tides, sea-level rise and loss of sediment supply.
- Human: dams and river-sand mining that cut the sediment reaching the coast; ports, harbours and breakwaters that block the natural drift of sand; seawalls that shift erosion down-coast; destruction of mangroves and dunes; and construction on the shore itself.
Effects
- People: loss of land, homes and livelihoods, especially of fishing communities; saltwater intrusion into wells and fields; damage to roads, ports and tourism; and displacement.
- Ecology: loss of beaches, mangroves and wetlands, damaged turtle-nesting habitats and greater exposure to floods and storm surges.
Coastal management techniques
- Hard engineering: seawalls, groynes, breakwaters, revetments and offshore reefs protect a stretch directly; they work locally but are costly, need maintenance and often shift erosion to the next stretch of coast.
- Soft engineering: beach nourishment with dredged sand, restoration of mangroves and dunes, and coastal shelterbelts that absorb wave energy and rebuild themselves after storms.
- Policy and planning: Coastal Regulation Zone rules, shoreline mapping and zoning, integrated coastal zone management, curbs on sand mining, and managed retreat where protection is not viable.
Working with natural buffers, curbing sand mining and planning settlements with shoreline data offer the most lasting protection.
Written by Minimalist IAS from facts checked at source (how we verify). UPSC publishes no model answers: compare your structure and coverage with this, then write your own.