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'No danger to India from sea level change'

By G. Srinivasan

THANJAVUR AUG. 26. There will be very little change in the sea level in India as the country is in a safe position geographically, according to Michael Tooley, Professor of Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences, Kingston University, U.K.

Dr. Tooley, who was here to attend an international conference on globalisation and sustainable development, organised jointly by the Department of Earth Sciences, Tamil University and the Indian Geographical Society, told The Hindu that sea level change was an all-over phenomena in the world. Geographers invented contour lines of the ocean — lines on the ocean surface which join points of equal heights in 1800. These contours were first measured in 1978. They were measured by satellites in relation to one fixed point on earth, centre of the earth which does not move. Using these contours the sea levels were measured and the sea level is the lowest in India, 100 metres deep compared to other countries. The contours run in right angles only in two countries — Australia and India — particularly in South India.

Dr. Tooley said he did research on sediments and sea level rise in South India, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. "There is absolutely nothing to worry about sea level change in India as the country is in a safe position.''

Objecting to the construction of embankments along the coasts to check sea erosion, he said this was no solution. It would aggravate the problem in some other place. The solution would be to adapt to the natural changes in the sea. In England now embankments were removed and the sea was allowed to enter naturally in places where the value of agricultural land protected by embankments was low.

Favouring traditional practices of agriculture for sustainable development, Dr. Tooley said that alien technology should not be forced on a country.

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