Puri, Aug 19: With the surging tidal waves that have engulfed some chunks of the Puri beach in the holy town and have resulted in the corrosion of the shoreline near the Swarga Dwar, a three-member team of geologists from the Utkal University, led by the Head of the Geology Department of the University, Dr Durga Shankar Patnaik, visited the spot on Thursday to review the tidal ingress at the Puri beach.
The team visited Swarga Dwar and Mangala river mouth to study the phenomenon.
Patnaik addressed the media and said that they will study and compare the phenomenon with the previous 20-year data, to find out whether this phenomenon at the Swarga Dwar and Mangala river mouth has taken place accidentally, artificially or if it is a continuous marine process and would submit a report to the state government later.
Research Associate and another member of the team, Dr Debanand Beuria, stated that the sand casting of the Mangala river mouth is one of the reasons for tidal ingress in the Swarga Dwar area. Previously, the sand from all rivers in the Bay of Bengal in this direction, were carried to the sea during flood. If the sediments are not supplied to the sea, there will be erosion as the sea will take away the sands from the shoreline. Between 2000 and 2007, the wind direction had changed from 7 degrees to 37 degrees, which is one of the major factors for coastal erosion and since the Puri beach is flat, the height of the tidal wave is comparatively much higher. Hence, it can be said that it is a natural phenomenon.
He further said that now it can be observed that the sand has started depositing in the portion in Swarga Dwar area where the erosion had taken place two weeks ago. The prime responsibility now is to naturally combat this phenomenon and a buffer zone of about 200 metres from the shore should be created to allow the sea to have its own activities in an area of maximum 20-25 metres. Mangrove or Casuarina trees can be grown in the remaining area of the buffer zone. He also stated that geo-synthetic tube is not a permanent solution to prevent erosion.
