Large tracts of coral reefs are bleaching each time sea surface temperatures rise with every subsequent El Niño event

The smallest Union Territory of India, Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 12 atolls (ring shaped coral reef, island or series of islets), three reefs and five submerged banks. Enclosed by the emerald waters of the Arabian Sea, the 36 islands of Lakshadweep lie between 200 to 440 km away from the coastal city of Kochi in Kerala. “For a start, Lakshadweep is India’s only oceanic atoll system. Atolls have a unique and utterly fascinating geology—they are geological structures formed almost exclusively by the constant activity of living coral growing into ring-shaped reefs around old, sinking volcanoes. The atoll reefs of Lakshadweep have a large, still incompletely explored biodiversity. Unfortunately, we stand to lose this rich living heritage before we even know what we are losing,” Arthur laments. He holds both climate change and manmade disasters responsible for the impending loss. “In 1998, my second trip to Lakshadweep was a different one. A globally catastrophic band of hot water [the 1998 El Niño] was spreading across the Indian Ocean, and I was racing against time to determine how the reefs in India were faring. By the time I got to Lakshadweep, the weather was already miserable, limiting how much I could sample. But what I saw was devastating enough. Virtually everywhere I looked, coral reefs were bleaching and dying. I returned later that year when the weather had cleared and the scale of the damage was clear. More than 80 per cent of several  reefs had been affected by the El Niño event and I assumed that these would never recover. Climate change was with us, and Lakshadweep was clearly one of its primary targets,” Arthur adds, validating Karkarey’s observations made later between 2011 and 2014.

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Young girls from Kadmat Island on their way to school. A recent IIT-Kharagpur study indicated that Kadmat is likely to face land loss throughout its shoreline due to rising seas. Pic/Getty Images

What environment degradation hasn’t managed, human destruction now will. Lakshadweep has made headlines recently after the local administration said it is planning to open it up to large-scale beachside tourism and infrastructure development. Under the proposed Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation of 2021 (LDAR), the administration’s plan is to develop posh tourism villas in at least 10 islands in the archipelagos, developed under a private-public partnership model with the Union government. Should this draft become a law, experts warn that it will work against legal provisions that safeguard Lakshadweep’s ecology.  

Rucha Karkarey

Environmentalists, locals and researchers have warned of the disastrous consequences. Arthur, Karkarey and other scientists have formed the Lakshadweep Research Collective to oppose this plan. “Anyone who has lived or worked in Lakshadweep is aware of its special vulnerability. Surrounded by ocean, barely a few metres above sea level, and with only the reef to protect it, it is clear that all development on these islands needs to be carefully managed. Over the last two decades, we have personally witnessed the reefs being battered by repeated bleaching events and intense storms. How long it will take for these ecosystems to recover is anyone’s guess. Given how linked land, lagoon and reef are in Lakshadweep, the development envisioned in the draft LDAR would be nothing short of disastrous,” Arthur wrote in a letter addressed to President Ram Nath Kovind last month on behalf of the Collective, seeking his intervention in withdrawing the draft.

Rohan Arthur, senior scientist

Karkarey says that apart from environmental damage, the project will also impact the livelihood of people. “The main livelihood activities surround coconut farming and tuna fishing. By starting tourism on land where these traditional occupations are conducted, we will obstruct their business. The fishermen catch tuna and leave it for drying on the land,” Karkarey explains. Arthur agrees, “Apart from disenfranchising local communities of their legitimate agency over ancestral lands, the plans are ecologically disastrous and socio-economically questionable.”

Tuna fishing is a mainstay of the Lakshadweep economy. Fishermen use the beach as an important space to process tuna into Masmin to get it ready for sale

The Collective wants a complete repeal of the development plans and suggests that a decision be taken in consultation with locals and researchers who have long engaged with the ecology and society of Lakshadweep. “If there is a genuine concern to bring prosperity to Lakshadweep, there are sustainable models to follow where benefits accrue directly to local communities rather than the rich industrial complex. These solutions can also be tailored to bolster the ecological resilience of the atoll system. We would like to believe that the government has the best interest of Lakshadweep at heart, and to this end, we urge it to review its current plans,” 
Arthur adds.

Hawksbill turtle,  a critically endangered species, swims in the Kavaratti Lagoon. Pic courtesy/Mahima Jaini

The government’s plans come at a time when the archipelago is already struggling against climate change. “Our results are showing that some reefs are no longer able to keep up with the repeated disturbance events and have already lost their ability to protect the lagoon and island from wave damage, land erosion and freshwater protection. Other studies have shown that these impacts are likely to worsen, leading to significant inundation over the next few decades. Studies from atolls around the world indicate that many may be uninhabitable by mid-century. And while we still have to confirm these results for Lakshadweep, all the warning signs are already there. For the 70,000+ people living in Lakshadweep, they face a real and present existential threat,” Arthur warns.

Professor SA Sannasiraj

A recent study conducted by researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-Kharagpur), was published in the Regional Studies in Marine Science in May this year. It projects that almost 60 per cent of the land along the shorelines of Kavaratti and Minicoy, two of the larger islands in the archipelago, will be lost by the end of the century. Professor Prasad Bhaskaran, co-author of the study titled, Climate projections of sea level rise and associated coastal inundation in atoll islands: Case of Lakshadweep Islands in the Arabian Sea, says, “We started working on this paper in 2019. Rising sea levels are a global problem now. When we looked at the Arabian Sea, we found that the water is getting warmer at a faster rate as compared to the Bay of Bengal. This has a direct implication on tropical cyclones. Lakshadweep will be bearing a brunt of increasing number of cyclones now.”

Prasad Bhaskaran

This IIT-Kharagpur study was conducted on 10 islands, including Minicoy, Kalpeni, Androth, Agatti, Kavaratti, Amini, Kadmat, Kiltan, Chetlat and Bitra. Bhaskaran, professor of the ocean engineering department at IIT-Kharagpur, writes in the study, “We found that Chetlat is going to be most affected. Chetlat, which is separated from the main island during high tides, might be permanently separated due to the rising sea. The larger islands Kadmat and Kavaratti are also projected to suffer land loss throughout its shoreline, especially in the southern portions of Kavaratti, under all forcing scenarios. Androth, the largest island in the archipelago is expected to have the least inundation as much of its coastline is higher than the projected sea level rise. Minicoy might experience heavy incursion of sea in the northern tips and in the small islet.”

While Bhaskaran believes that development projects cannot be put off, he stresses that thorough research is needed to understand their impact on biodiversity.
 
If the administration is to go ahead with the tourism plan, experts feel that the solution lies in the Gulf of Mannar mission that was undertaken a few years ago. The Gulf of Mannar’s Vaan Island, a small strip of land between India and Sri Lanka, was expected to be submerged by 2022. But since 2015, its land cover has grown by 54.51 per cent. This is because of an intensive restoration project carried out by the Tamil Nadu government. It sought financial support from the Environment Ministry, under the climate change adaptation fund. Experts at IIT-Madras worked alongside Suganthi Devadason of Marine Research Institute (SDMRI) to design the artificial reef modules. Professor SA Sannasiraj, head of department of ocean engineering, IIT-Madras, says, “It is true that if manmade developments are stopped, there will be no disturbance to nature. Having said that, as scientists our job is to find solutions to existing problems so that the environment is preserved. The Gulf of Mannar is therefore, a success story. Based on bathymetric wave studies, we designed and later laid these artificial reef modules in the area. This structure attracted corals and offered them a safe place to live in the damaged ecosystem. The result is a rejuvenated landmass.”

He says that the layout would have to differ from one island to another. “But the structural concept stays the same, if we were to use a similar method to save Lakshadweep islands.”

Arthur is also concerned about the impact on aquatic species like turtles, fish and other marine invertebrates. These may  start their life in one ecosystem, but use every other habitat in the system at some point of their lives. He says, “The lagoon and the reef together provide a huge diversity of benefits to human communities that live on the islands—from providing food to buffering the island from the worst impact of an impetuous ocean—but also to marine life.”

12:3:5
The smallest Union Territory of India, Lakshadweep is an archipelago of 12 atolls (ring shaped coral reef, island or series of islets), three reefs and five submerged banks. Enclosed by the Arabian Sea, the 36 islands of Lakshadweep lie between 200 to 440 kilometres away from Kochi in the state of Kerala