Agence France Press: GLOBAL warming could submerge three of India's biggest cities beneath the sea by 2020 unless the crisis was brought under control, an Indian scientist warned today. "If the warming continues, there will be about half to one metre increase in sea level by 2020 and cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras will be completely submerged," said Rajiv Nigam, a scientist with the Geological Oceanography Division in the western Indian state of Goa.
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Rising sea 'to drown 3 cities'
From correspondents in Madras
December 7, 2003
GLOBAL warming could submerge three of India's biggest
cities beneath the sea by 2020 unless the crisis was
brought under control, an Indian scientist warned
today. "If the warming continues, there will be about
half to one metre increase in sea level by 2020 and
cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras will be
completely submerged," said Rajiv Nigam, a scientist
with the Geological Oceanography Division in the
western Indian state of Goa.
He said a one-metre rise in sea level could cause five
trillion rupees ($147.24 billion) worth of damage to
property in Goa alone.
"If this is the quantum of damage in a small state
like Goa that has only two districts, imagine the
extent of property loss in metros like Bombay," he
added at a workshop in the National College in
Dirudhy, Tamil Nadu state.
He also predicted that global warming could cause
frequent cyclones along coastal areas and affect the
annual monsoon rain, which is crucial for India's
farm-dependent economy.