Arabian Sea Is Creating 'Climate Change Victims'

The Arabian Sea’s behaviour is changing, and it is creating “climate change victims” on India’s west coast

- Cithara Paul

Annirudhsinh Chudasama of Dholera, Gujarat; Vinayak Naik of Genaiyyanvade, Karnataka; Godson of Periyathura, Kerala; and Stephan of Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, do not know each other. But there is something common to all of them—they are all victims of the vagaries of the Arabian Sea.

Chudasama’s land became barren because of the salinity ingress. Naik watched as seawater rushed into his paddy fields and submerged them. Godson, like hundreds of other traditional fishermen from Kerala, stopped going to the sea as the catch was getting meagre by the day. And, Stephan lost his home to the sea.

WEST COAST WORRY

Land projected to be below annual flood level in 2030

Note: Projection is based on sea level rise plus the added height of local annual floods. It is as per leading consensus in the 2021 assessment report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

SOURCE CLIMATE CENTRAL

GRAPHICS SREMANIKANDAN S.

RESEARCH KARTHIK RAVINDRANATH

In the past, the Arabian Sea was calm, as seas go. But not anymore; the frequency and intensity of cyclones have increased multi-fold in the last decade.