Monsoon brings waves of dread to those living by the sea Premium

Increased sea erosion along the 320 km Karnataka coast, some natural and many man-made, has resulted in disappearance of a massive extent of land and destroyed many properties.

Many people spend sleepless nights from June every year when the Southwest Monsoon sets in along the Western Coast, including that of Karnataka. They fervently hope that the raging waves of the Arabian Sea do not wash them away when they are in deep sleep.

This has been the tale of every resident, poor or rich, living along the Karnataka coast, particularly sea erosion-prone areas, including Batpady, Ullal, Meenakaliya in Dakshina Kannada and Hejmady, Kaup, Malpe-Padukare, Maravanthe, Koderi, Uppunda, Byndoor and Shiroor in Udupi districts.

With the revival of Monsoon from July first week this year, residents of Batpady on Karnataka-Kerala border were asked to move out of their beachside houses to Kalaji Kendras. Elderly B. Fathima was seen reluctantly moving out of her house saying she had an emotional attachment to the house built by her late husband. While she was living there for about two decades, the erosion has intensified over the last four-five years, she said.

However, the disappearance of the Monsoon from July-end has, ironically, brought relief to thousands of people like Ms. Fathima who though it spelt doom for other sections of people, mainly farmers.

About 10 km of beachfront from Ullal to Batpady to the South of Mangaluru has been witnessing the fury of the raging waves for more than a decade. Construction of the southern breakwater at the Netravathi-Phalguni (Gurupura) river mouth for smooth navigation of fishing vessels to and from the Mangaluru fishing port is said to have triggered the erosion initially in Ullal. The government began dumping boulders along the affected coast to prevent erosion only to see the boulders getting washed away the next Monsoon.

Some offshore berms and inshore reefs constructed under Asian Development Bank-funded Sustainable Coastal Protection and Management Intervention Plan from 2014 at a cost of around ₹900 crore did not last long. Meanwhile, the erosion shifted further South swallowing the beachfront in Someshwara, Uchchila, and finally at Batpady. Another scheme was implemented, again with ADB funds, for Someshwara-Batpady, which was partially effective where groynes were built. Since groynes were not built at Batpady, they got completely destroyed, say local residents.

A similar situation prevailed on beaches to the North of Mangaluru, where severe erosions were reported at places that saw human intervention, in the form of building breakwaters for fishing harbours or construction activities. Sasihithlu Beach near Mulki is one such example where the verdant beachfront was completely destroyed after the construction of a bridge and a fishing jetty on Nandini river. It is said the coffer-bund erected for bridge construction altered the river flow into the Sea, thereby causing erosion.