NGT seeks comprehensive plan to prevent coastal erosion of Ghoramara Island; sets up committee

NGT establishes a Joint Committee to develop a comprehensive plan to combat coastal erosion at Ghoramara Island and protect mangroves.

Observing that adhoc measures adopted to prevent coastal erosion of the Sundarbans, particularly the fast eroding Ghoramara island, will not yield fruitful results in the long run, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has called for a comprehensive approach and set up a committee to come up with a report in three months.

The principal Bench of the NGT comprising Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Chairperson and expert member Afroz Ahmad, appointed a Joint Committee comprising the Director General Forest, Regional Office, Bhubaneshwar Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, and Principal Chief Conservator of Forest, West Bengal.

“The Joint Committee will collect all the relevant facts and will prepare a comprehensive plan for the protection of the mangrove forest in the areas under consideration in this OA (Operative Application) and also the steps that can be taken for the protection of the coastal erosion in that area and further enhancing the mangrove coverage. Let this exercise be completed by the Joint Committee within a period of three months and the report be submitted immediately thereafter,” the order by the NGT dated February 17, 2026 said.

A view of the Ghoramara Island, more than 100 km from Kolkata, in the Sundarban area of the Bay of Bengal. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu

The Bench also directed that the committee in its report will also indicate the tentative expenditure, the probable sources of funding and the agencies responsible for the implementation of the scheme along with the timeline.

The NGT has taken suo motu cognisance of coastal erosion of the Sundarbans particularly Ghoramara Island based on a media report highlighting that nearly 40% of Ghoramara Island may shrink by 2042 due to advancing sea erosion.