UPSC Mains 2023 GS1 Q14: model answer

India's coastline, re-measured in 2023 at about 11,098 km, touches nine States and four UTs, and its Exclusive Economic Zone covers about 2 million sq km.

Resource potential

• Fisheries: India is among the top fish producers; marine fishing supports millions.
• Ports and trade: about 95% of trade by volume moves by sea; Sagarmala aims at port-led development.
• Energy: offshore oil and gas at Bombay High and the Krishna-Godavari basin; offshore wind potential off Gujarat and Tamil Nadu; tidal energy in the Gulf of Khambhat.
• Minerals: monazite, ilmenite and rutile in Kerala and Odisha beach sands.
• Tourism, salt and mangroves: Goa, Kerala; Gujarat salt; the Sundarbans.

Hazards

Cyclones and storm surges (east coast more exposed), tsunami (2004), coastal erosion, flooding and sea-level rise.

Status of preparedness

• Strengths: INCOIS Tsunami Early Warning Centre (2007); accurate IMD cyclone forecasts; the National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project's shelters; Odisha's evacuations during Phailin (2013) and Fani (2019) kept deaths low.
• Coastal Regulation Zone rules and NDRF deployment.
• Gaps: west coast less prepared as Arabian Sea cyclones rise; erosion of about a third of the coast; mangrove loss; unplanned construction; weak urban drainage in Mumbai and Chennai; fishers' livelihoods after disasters.

A blue economy will be sustainable only if it builds in resilience: mangrove belts, strict CRZ enforcement and early warnings that reach the last fisher.