Reality Mangrove In Sensex India
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
India, say its leaders, is a booming economy and growth rates are high and successive governments have invested crores of rupees into building infrastructure.But it takes just a few hours of rain to turn the best of our cities into disaster zones. Clearly, it exposes the worst face of India.
Every monsoon, despite outward signs of development, it takes just a few hours of heavy rain for the country's premier cities to come to a virtual standstill. Every year civic agencies claim to put in their best efforts to clean drains and create the right infrastructure, but every year the monsoon arrives and washes away the claims.For now as our cities try to survive another monsoon, many of us hope that it will be better next year. But given the current state of affairs, perhaps, that is a tall order.
Mangrove Forests: One of the World's Threatened Major Tropical Environments
At least 35% of the area of mangrove forests has been lost in the past two decades, losses that exceed those for tropical rain forests and coral reefs, two other well-known threatened environments
IVAN VALIELA, JENNIFER L. BOWEN, and JOANNA K. YORK
IBN7 reports that Mangrove trees around Mumbai have to be wiped out in the best interest of a Builder. The Chief minister has not invited any tender for this task. In Bengal, entire coast line is dedicated to SEZ, PCPIR and Atomic power plant. Urbanisation and Industrialisation drive is killing the Mangroves all over India. This is Reality Mangrove in Sensex India which is not concerned with natural calamities or so much hyped Gloabal warming! Well, the Shining Brand India has got the best news break as the marketmen, analysts and brokers were eyeing it for a long time, and it was mid-noon Friday that the trading reached its peak and pushed the benchmark Sensex to an all time high of 15,000 points. The National Stock Exchange index Nifty too surged above 4400 level at 13:20 hours IST. The calamities always herald a Sensex Boom! While an archaic drainage system and excessive reclamation of land for roads are eroding the cover of water absorbing mangroves. It's a recipe for disaster. 15,000 was such a big number or the hurdle that the market was grappling with. The bigger issue was, could it have broken into fresh all time highs and that it did at the beginning of last week. This landmark event was coming. In the last couple of days, many people might have just got fooled by the temporary sluggishness in the market. But these things often happen.
Investors concerned that the Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani's lack of retail experience would be a handicap should think again. The Mumbai-based group is investing $6 billion in the stores, supported by record profits from operating the world's third-largest oil-refinery. The stores are opening as India's retail sales surge, rising as much as 35 percent a year driven by a burgeoning middle class.The supermarket chain's sales will reach $25 billion by 2011, more than its total revenue last year, the company has forecasted. The growth, combined with profits from oil, will drive Reliance shares to 2,060 rupees in the next 12 months, Goldman Sachs Group analysts said in a June 18 note.
Meanwhile, a new disaster is awaited for Rural India as a group of ministers on Friday cleared a new mining policy, which will now be sent to the union cabinet for final approval, Minister of State for Mines T. Subbarami Reddy said.Only 10 percent of India's land mass has been explored for its mineral wealth, and industry officials say this is largely due to the mounds of paperwork involved and bureaucratic delays.On the other hand,The Parliamentary Committee on Special Economic Zones (SEZs) said no further SEZs should be notified unless the law is amended to include changes pertaining to land acquisition.The Committee, headed by BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, in its report recommended reducing the maximum land area for multi-product SEZs to 2,000 hectares if cultivable land is acquired for setting up these zones.Earlier, an empowered Group of Ministers had fixed 5,000 hectares as the land ceiling for multi-product SEZs.
"All land for SEZs should be taken on lease by developers. There should not be transfer of ownership," the Parliamentary Committee said in its 83rd report on functioning of SEZs.
So far, the Board of Approval in the Commerce Ministry has formally approved 341 SEZ proposals, 170 in-principle and notified 128 others.
Last July, a committee recommended changes to make it easier to grant permits for surveying, prospecting and leasing of mines, including to foreign firms.Overseas prospecting companies rarely come to India because they cannot sell the data they map, and can only utilise the information if they mine themselves.The new policy is also expected to outline a policy on iron ore exports, following demands by domestic steel makers to ban overseas sales to preserve supplies for local firms.
More over,Cargill Inc., the largest U.S. agricultural company, and six other suppliers offered to sell wheat to India at record prices two months after the world's second-biggest user of the grain refused to pay a lower rate. The companies offered 920,000 metric tons, less than the 1 million tons sought, at $317 a ton and $370 a ton, a government official said today in New Delhi. The price is higher than the $265 a ton quoted in a tender canceled on May 30. The South Asian nation scrapped the tender of an equivalent quantity citing high prices. Wheat has since climbed 12 percent to a record on the Chicago Board of Trade, making it expensive for the country to boost its reserves of the grain.
MUMBAI: Infrastructure Development Finance, the Indian financier that set up a fund with Blackstone Group Holdings and Citigroup, raised $519 million selling shares to fund the construction of new roads, ports and other public works projects in India.
IDFC sold 165.35 million shares at 127 rupees, or $3.14, apiece to raise 21 billion rupees from institutional investors across Asia, Europe and the United States, the lender said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange in Mumbai. Its shares fell as much as 4.4 percent.
I remember the mobilisation days of Morichjhanpi movement when just after Comrade Jyoti Basu`s Bhilai visit the resettled Bengali dalit refugees in MP, Andhra, Maharashtra and Orrissa decided to get home back. First left front ministery key member Ram Chatterjee was monitoring the campaign. Since North India including undivided UP, Bihar, Assam, Rajasthan and Delhi also had refugee colonies and camps, the leaders of Marichjhanpi Movement based in Mana camp, Raipur contacte d my father Pulin Kumar Biswas, the President of All India Udvastu Samiti! The mobilisation began before emergency and got momentum as the Left Front took over State Power and Comrade Basu was sworn in as Chief Minister! Pulin Babu had to be consulted as he had been undisputed refugee leader in North India! He, in fact, visted Mana camp and tried to convince the leaders of the Marichjhanpi March that neither Centre nor the state government would allow it and they would lose their ground for ever. I visted mana camp in 2005 and met the surviving leader of the movement Satish Mandal. He accepted that the Marxists of Bengal betrayed. He and his lieutinents also confirmed that they mishandled Pulin Babu and the security forces saved him as the agitators believed that he was an agent of Congress Party!
I was a graduation student in DSB College Nainital during that period. Because I had a staunch Marxists since my schooldays, I had many differences with my late father as he was disillusioned with Marxists. He was disillusioned as the Dalit East Bengal Refugees never got any support from Brhminical West Bengal. He was disillusioned most with Dhimri Block experience as he was the leader of the Peasants` uprising in Terai in 1958 on Telengan Line. CPI betrayed Telengana! Betrayed Dhimri Block. He was also disillusioned as the Bengali communists had no symapathy with the refugees suffering in riot hit Assam where he visited as a communist leader in 1960 and appealed his people to stay home! He did never believe Basu and his men having been ousted from Bengal and then, CPI. I used to say that he was biased and he contradicted my ideological logic citing events and experiences. Since I also led my High School in 1970 as a junior student in an agitation demanding Bengali script question paper for Bengali Language subject. It was a strike against the District Board management which was presided by no less a person than freedom fighter Shyam Lal Verma. My father had a very good relation with the man and also with the principal, Mr KL Sah, eventually who loved me lifelong!
With that incidence, my father recognised me and my ideology. He never interfered. In my college days, we had diffrences but he was habitual to discuss refugee problems and all other issues with me and sought informations available. I also used to help him making drafts of memorendums on different issues.
As I had been associated with Chipoko Movement, I tried to convince him on ecological lines and also described the government policies. He understood the logic and realised the importance of Mangroves. With his experiences in Communist Party, he knew that the Marichjhanpi Movement had to be a disaster. Thus, he opposed and had been mishandled by satish Mandal, who is the richest among refugees now a days running industries and his followers losing every thing. However, Pulin Babu was succesful to convince his supporters not to go back West Bengal. They did not turn up. None from UP, Bihar,Assam and Rajsthan.
At that time, Jyoti Basu acted to save the Mangroves , it is claimed. Marichjhanpi genocide is a history now in the name of saving eco- culture and Mangroves.
And now, Basu is the man, the best defenceline of Capitalist Marxism and he advocates SEZ, SAZ, Retail Chain, IT, PCPIRand even an atomic power plant in Coastal areas. At least two PCPIR of 250 square KM have to be set on the coast line of West Bengal!
They killed the Dalit Refugees to save the Mangroves inn Marichjhanpi. And now they evict Nandigram, Singur, Mahishadal, Haripur peasants to accomodate promoters and MNCs! Nandigram Genocide is done to wipe the Mangroves. And no one else but Basu happens to be the Marxist Patriarch to defend the destruction of Mangroves! Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. says it will invest about $200 million to expand ethylene capacity at Haldia from 520,000 m.t./year, to 670,000 m.t./year. The project is expected to be completed by April or May, 2008. HPL cites ?growing demand, and the delay in capacity additions mainly in the Middle East, which has extended the up-cycle in the petrochemicals business.? All players in the petrochemical industry ?are making good profits from their existing business operations, and HPL thought it prudent to quickly increase volumes to reap the benefits from the up-cycle,? the company says.
HPL says that strong growth in the Indian economy, as well as the country?s huge population and rising incomes of its middle-class, will be the major growth drivers of India?s petrochemical industry in the years to come. The Indian government?s decision to invest about $456 billion in infrastructure as part of its 11th five-year plan (2007-11) will act as a demand multiplier, HPL says. ?The current level of polymer per capita consumption in India is 5 kg, compared to the global average of 24 kg and China?s consumption of 30 kg,? HPL says. ?Low consumption in India represents a huge market waiting to be tapped.?
HPL says it is working on several other options for future expansion, but it declined to provide details. The company has expressed an interest in investing in one of India?s previously announced petroleum, chemicals, and petrochemical investment regions (PCPIR) if a PCPIR is established by the state government of West Bengal, where Haldia is located. The West Bengal government says it is considering establishing a PCPIR.
The much awaited national rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R) Bill is likely to be tabled in the monsoon session of the Parliament.
Ashwani Kumar, minister of state for industry, GoI said, "We are trying to place the Bill in the coming monsoon session of the parliament. By the end of this year it should be passed as a law."
The thrust areas would be market compensation, speedy compensation, and to encourage the developer to give one job per family of the displaced, he added.
He was speaking in the context of land acquisition in some of the biggest projects like the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC), Petroleum, Chemicals, Petrochemicals Investment Regions (PCPIR), and the Manufacturing Investment Regions(MIR).
The proposed DMIC would be in the lines of the Tokyo- Osaka corridor, and would draw investments of the order of Rs. 400,000 crores or a whopping $100 billion. The money would be spent on developing industrial infrastructure along the 1,483 km long railway freight corridor connecting the two major cities.The corridor will pass through six states including Maharshtra, Gujrat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, and Delhi.
Thousands of people in eastern India were marooned for a fourth straight day on Friday as torrential rains hampered relief work, and in neighbouring Bangladesh two people were killed by landslides.Close to 700 people have died in South Asia due to heavy rains and storms over the past fortnight. While the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan has eased, parts of India and Bangladesh continued to suffer downpours.International anti-poverty group ActionAid accused the government of mismanaging the disaster.It said there was already a warning that as many as 41 reservoirs across the country were choking with excess water and could result in disastrous floods, especially in the western and southern belt of the country.
In the western state of Gujarat, also hit by heavy rains, an endangered Asiatic lion and 85 rare blackbuck deer drowned in protected reserves over the last two days, forestry officials said.
Several thousand people in the Indian state of West Bengal remained cut off from the rest of the country after surging rivers, triggered by an overnight storm, broke through mud embankments and swamped villages.Civic authorities have been completely overwhelmed with relief work and faced public ire in many places.
The army has been called out to rescue people and reach succour in vast areas of southern West Bengal, flooded due to incessant rainfall for the last four days even as there was a let-up in the downpour in Kolkata.Official sources said Friday that the army has been deployed in the worst affected Hooghly district where a dam on river Mundeshwari has breached, inundating at least 25 villages in Khanakul and several areas of Arambagh. The army was engaged in rescue operations in the region while large areas in East Midnapore's Nandigram, Khejuri, Bhagwanpur, Palaspur and Haldia remained submerged, affecting at least 17,000 houses. Ghatal in West Midnapore district was also badly affected.
At least 15 people have lost their lives in the floods and rainfall so far, police said.
A flood-like situation prevailed in Purulia district while many parts of Durgapur town in Burdwan district continued to be submerged.
The weather office here had forecast spells of heavy rain in West Bengal's Gangetic districts Friday, though Kolkata witnessed lighter showers since Thursday night.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's comments decrying the alleged rape and killings in Nandigram today prompted veteran Left leader Jyoti Basu to ask whether he knew that hundreds of CPI(M) supporters had been driven out of the same area.
"Does the prime minister know this? Two thousand of our people are in camps, though we are in the government here (in West Bengal). This is a matter of shame," he told reporters after a meeting of the CPI(M) state secretariat.
"It has come out in the papers. But has (Trinamool Congress chief) Mamata (Banerjee) told the Prime Minister that 2,000 of our men have been driven out of Nandigram?" Basu shot back when asked to react to Singh's comments in Delhi yesterday.
Banerjee, who has been leading protests against the acquisition of farm land for industry in West Bengal, had recently met the Prime Minister. Singh had yesterday said he had shared his anguish over the incidents in Nandigram with Banerjee.
Basu also slammed the CBI for arresting a CPI(M) leader in connection with the murder of Tapasi Malik -- a woman linked to protests against the Tata Motors' project in Singur -- and said the agency was not impartial.
"The CBI was never in our favour. I found this when I was in the government," the former chief minister said when asked to react to the arrest of CPI-M's Singur zonal committee secretary Suhrid Dutta by the CBI.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan on Thursday made it clear that the land seized by him along with the Special Task Force (STF) at Munnar on Tuesday was in the possession of the Tata group.The Chief Minister took this position when mediapersons here sought his comments on the reported statement of Revenue Minister K.P. Rajendran in the Assembly that the disputed land actually belonged to the Forest Department and not to the Tata group as was made out by some sections earlier.He said he had gone to Munnar to visit the calamity-hit areas there. “When I was there, the STF wanted me to take part in the programme of shifting a name board of the Tata group and installing the Government name board as it marked the beginning of the drive to evict the group from encroached lands. I accepted the request to give moral support to its actions there. This is all that had happened in Munnar.”
Giving a detailed account of the land encroachments in Munnar, the Chief Minister said the Land Board constituted in 1974 as per the Land Act of 1971 had segregated the land in that area as Government land, Tata group’s land and forest land. Much of the Government land was remaining interspersed between the land owned by the Tata group.
Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Friday he believed it was "still possible" to clinch a World Trade Organisation (WTO) accord in 2007 despite recent setbacks.Nath said he would meet European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson in London on Saturday "to try to move this forward", referring to the Doha round of talks, which were launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 with the aim of boosting global trade flows and helping poorer nations export more.
http://in.today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=businessNews&storyID=2007-07-06T190035Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-283503-1.xml
India rice, cane planting area decreases
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Planting of major kharif crops, rice and sugarcane, has decreased in acreage from the same time last year while cotton and oilseeds increased, a farm ministry release on Friday said.So far rice has been transplanted over 4.60 million hectares (11.37 million acres) (ha), compared with 4.77 million ha last year.
Sugarcane area decreased to 4.52 million ha from 4.61 million ha during the same period last year.
Area under cotton increased to 5.96 million ha, including 2.33 million ha under BT cotton, compared with a total of 3.7 million ha last year.
The total coverage of oilseeds so far has been 4.23 million ha against 3.26 million ha last year.
Coarse cereals covered a total area of 6.08 million ha compared with 5.84 million ha in the same period last year.
Pulses have occupied 2.68 million ha land so far against 2.66 million ha last year.
In India, which has two crop cycles, kharif farm products are sown in June and harvested from October.
Reliance takes the blow as Left talks shop
CNN-IBN
New Delhi: No big shops please, we are Marxists – that’s the latest red herring from the comrades. After taking on the Tatas over the Munnar forestland issue, the VS Achuthanandan government in Kerala is now planning to stop Reliance Retail from setting up shop in the state.While a CPI-M MLA may have happily inaugurated Reliance’s first foray into the Kerala retail space, the LDF government has now made it clear that the corporate retailer is simply not welcome.
Such is the outrage against the corporate giant that the state government has drafted a legislation on the lines of the Central Essential Commodities Act that will empower them to prevent, or at least, restrict the entry of further corporate retail outlets
But does it make any economic sense to target retail giants? CNN-IBN debated the issue on Thursday’s edition of Face the Nation conducted by Sagarika Ghose. On the guest panel to discuss the issue were MD of Subhiksha retail chain R Subramanian; Managing Editor of Consumer Voice Shriram Khanna and CPI MP, Gurudas Dasgupta.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/reliance-takes-the-blow-as-left-talks-shop/44170-3.html
West Bengal Assembly uproar over figures on Singur
Kolkata, July. 6 (PTI): The West Bengal Assembly today witnessed uproarious scenes when Opposition members contested figures given by Land Reform minister Abdur Razzak Mollah on land acquisition for Tata Motors project at Singur saying they were contrary to those given by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee. The trouble started when Razzak Molla said a total of 997.11 acre had been acquired for the project at Singur and the district collector had declared an award of Rs 119.52 crore towards compensation of the land.
Trinamool Congress member Saugata Roy said Mollah's statement contradicted the status report submitted by the Chief Minister in his letter of December 20, 2006 to TC chief Mamata Banerjee.
It had stated that consent for acquisition of land was received for 954 acre out of the total 997.11 acre, he said.
Congress Chief Whip Manas Bhunia sought Speaker H A Halim's intervention in view of the "contradiction" and demanded the Chief Minister's statement with a clarification on the facts and figures on land acquisition at Singur. Bhunia wondered how the leader of the house and his senior cabinet colleague could give contradictory reports.
Roy, quoting the Chief Minister's letter, said Rs 85 crore had been paid to 9500 beneficiaries at Singur and no land was acquired forcibly even from a single farmer against his will.
Molla said he was going by the records in his department and he was absolutely right about the facts submitted by him.
Bill Gates to set up agro kiosks in Maharashtra
Commodity Online
July 06, 2007 11:05 IST
Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has offered to set up high tech agro kiosks across Maharasthra to help farmers get information on weather and cropping patterns.
Gates' offer came when Maharasthra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh met the Microsoft boss during an official visit this week. The chief minister is on an eight-day US visit.
A state government official said Gates has also agreed to set up a research centre near Pune apart from helping the government establish agro-kiosks.
A statement from Deskhmukh said the agro kiosks will help farmers get the latest information on weather, cropping patterns and trends in agricultural produce prices very quickly and efficiently.
http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2007/jul/06gates.htm
Twenty-eight worldwide reports of massive mangrove tree mortalities are reviewed. Massive mortality is defined as tree mortalities that occur in response to rapid environmental change and affect all size classes. Massive mortality occurs in addition to normal tree mortality. Normal tree mortality was described using structural data from 114 mangrove stands. This mortality is density dependent, follows orderly time dependent patterns dictated by stand maturation (related to average tree diameter), and usually occurs in the smaller diameter size classes. Disease and other biotic factors do not appear to be primary causes of massive mangrove mortalities. Instead, these factors appear to attack forests weakened by changes in the physical environment. Mangrove environments are dynamic and cyclical and mangrove associations adapt to such environments by both growing and dying fast. Mangrove species' characteristics such as the capacity to produce large quantities of propagules that take advantage of dispersal agents, sharp species zonations, and even-aged populations contribute to the rapid growth-mortality cycles in mangroves. Humans may tilt the balance towards higher mortality rates by introducing chronic stressors that inhibit regeneration mechanisms.
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0006-3606(198509)17%3A3%3C177%3ATMIMF%3E2.0.CO%3B2-8
The Sundarbans is a unique mangrove ecosystem of considerable ecological and economic value. The Sundarbans has supplied products and services to mankind for centuries and has been under systematic management for more than 100 years. The forest is now showing signs of degradation. Forest cover, species diversity and ecosystem function have declined, even though several forest policies, laws and management plans have been enacted to protect the forest. The effectiveness of these policies and plans is limited by the poor implementation capacity.
The Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG) alleged that large-scale reclamation and mangrove destruction has occurred near Uran and authorities have ignored it for over two years now. The land has been allotted to Reliance for the Navi Mumbai Special Economic Zone (NMSEZ), Private Limited.Debi Goenka, member activist of BEAG said, “Our team which visited Phunde Dongri, Kala Dhonda and Gori Pakhadi areas in Uran, on June 5, noticed large-scale mangrove destruction due to creek reclamation. A letter in this regard was sent to the Managing Director of City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra Limited (CIDCO) on June 6.”
Inquiries conducted by the team revealed that dumping and reclamation activities were observed on the plots bearing survey numbers 169, 170, 171, 172, 173 A and 180/1/A of Uran, under the jurisdiction of CIDCO. The activities have been on since mid-May this year, Goenka said. The activities are in blatant violation of Coastal Regulatory Zone Notification 1991 and the orders of the Bombay High Court on Public Interest Litigation number 87 filed in 2006, Goenka added.
The General Manager (SEZ), CIDCO JR Kulkarni, shot of a letter to the authorised signatory, NMSEZ, Private Limited on June 13 and instructed him to stop activities which were destroying mangroves. The letter — copy of which in possession of DNA — says dumping and mangrove destruction was also noticed by the Tehsildar, Uran and an Executive Engineer, Dronagiri, CIDCO who visited the site on June 11, apart from the BEAG.
Greenpeace raises serious concern over mega port in Orissa
Mumbai, June 9 (IANS) International environmental campaigner Greenpeace has raised serious concern over steel major Tata Steel's move to set up a mega port in Dhamra in Orissa's coastal Bhardrak district, saying it would be an "ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction" in the state's coastal areas.
The Dhamra port site is situated just five kilometres from the Bhitarkanika National Park, India's second largest mangrove forest and less than 15 kilometres from the Gahimatha Marine Sanctuary, the world's largest mass nesting ground for the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtles.
Tata Steel and construction giant Larsen & Toubro are jointly promoting Dhamra port with an estimated cost of Rs.25 billion.
Concerned over the massive industrialisation planned for Orissa's coastal areas, Greenpeace had approached marine zoologists from North Orissa University to conduct a rapid biodiversity assessment of the area.
Addressing a news conference here Friday, Oceans Campaigner of Greenpeace Ashish Fernandes said: "A Greenpeace-commissioned study has unequivocally established that Tata Steel's port at Dhamra would be an ecological blunder causing irreversible destruction."
Releasing the report on the World Oceans Day, renowned turtle researcher S.K. Dutta said: "The finding shatters the theory that the offshore waters near Dhamra are a no-turtle zone. The water and the beach around the port site are breeding and feeding grounds for the turtles."
"Over the course of our study conducted between February and March this year, we have recorded over 2,000 dead turtles, victims of mechanised fishing on the port site and in the nearby areas like Kanika Sands, an island off the port site," said Dutta, principal investigator of the study.
The study also made two exciting
Goa beaches disappearing - experts
New Delhi - The world-famous beaches in India's southwest state of Goa are facing a battle for survival following incursions by the sea amid heavy monsoon rains and human activities, a newspaper report said on Thursday.Torrential showers lashing the state for the past week have seen several beaches disappear underwater for the first time in history, the Indian Express daily reported.
The sea had encroached upon "fragile" land and affected the beach cover along with the trees, coconut groves and even houses and shades meant for boats.But experts and locals said the main reason for the disappearance of the beaches was because of reckless construction activities by builders.
Among the beaches under threat are Campal and Coco in northern Goa. Locals told the Express that builders had cut down trees and vegetation near the Coco beach, leading to erosion and encroachment by the sea.Betalbatim and Majorda beaches in South Goa were also facing threat due to the erosion.
"Hotels and other business establishments near the beaches have destroyed the sand dunes and lush vegetation that control tidal waves," Nandkumar Kamat, a scientist with the Goa University told the paper, blaming human interference for the degradation of the beaches.
Arvind Utawale, an expert on coastal science and mangroves, said that 80 percent of mangroves along the Indian coast had been destroyed because of the apathy of the politicians and the local administration.
"They want to get rid of the mangroves and sand dunes for so-called development. Cutting forests of mangroves will further devastate human beings," he said.
Goa is internationally renowned for its picturesque beaches and attracts thousands of domestic and foreign tourists every year.
It is among the most popular tourist destinations in India and attracts 1,2 million tourists annually, mostly from the US and Europe. - Sapa-DPA
In recent years, nature's whimsy has been as unpredictable as ever, parching vast swaths of farmland with unrelenting drought, or alternately flooding deserts, leaving many to wonder if global climate change is exacerbating the swings. With global warming, scientists say, extreme weather events are more likely to befall India, making it even more prone to crippling swings. Some climate modeling studies suggest that the summers will grow hotter in coming decades and the rains more brutal.
The Indian monsoon has always been erratic and fierce, bringing on average 89 centimeters, or 35 inches, of rain, often in short concentrated spurts, between June and September.
But the resulting calamities can be attributed as much to poor state planning as to nature. India does not have the infrastructure required to harness and store its rains, nor the irrigation network that can liberate its farmers from the vagaries of the monsoon.
And beyond the countryside, the rains routinely clog the ill-kept streets of some of its most prosperous, thriving cities.
India's technology capital, Bangalore, which is also the capital of this state, called Karnataka, is waterlogged nearly each year, as is the country's commercial capital, Mumbai.
Both cities have old, ill-maintained drainage systems that have lagged behind the huge growth in population and waste. The boom in building construction has destroyed the cities' natural drains - lakes, in the case of once-sleepy Bangalore, that have been filled and built over as property prices have climbed skyward, or mangroves on the fringes of the island city of Mumbai.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/05/news/india.php
With 7500 km of Coastline, 2000 km wide Economic exploitation Zone, the Bay Island of Andaman & Nicobar and the atoll island group of Lakshadweep, India harbours a vast extent of Coast and marine habitat. The Indian coastline supports almost 30% of its human population being
