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Beach Environments along the Coastal Stretches of West Bengal, India

Author Affiliations

  • 119, Raj Krishna Pal Lane, Kolkata – 700 075, India

Res. J. Marine Sci., Volume 10, Issue (1), Pages 4-13, December,13 (2022)

Abstract

West Bengal coast has been classified as a typical lowland coast by its origin and is a very significant product of extensive fluvio-marine deposits carried by the Ganga River and the Bay of Bengal. Tidal fluctuations, wave parameters, long shore currents, sand flats, and beach ridges are the characteristic features of the coastal areas of West Bengal. Beach is one of the dominant features in the coastal region that explains the characteristics and nature of the coast. Steep wave crests break in the surf zone of the beach and the formation of breakers depends on the beach width and beach slope, and the breaking types, in general, are spilling to collapsing as recorded in the West Bengal coasts. In the beach environment, higher the beach width, less the beach slope, and both these factors control the wave parameters as wave is one of the important factors in controlling the nature and shape of the depositional environment as well as the grain size distribution of the coastal areas. Observations revealed that the coastal region of West Bengal is an erosive one as it is a cyclone prone area. The cyclonic storms that ravaged the coast off and on devastate the coastlines on a regular basis indicating the West Bengal coastal zone as a vulnerable one. Sea level rise due to climatic change is another factor that might be considered as a probable reason for the coastal erosion in most of the beaches in South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur districts comprising coastal regions in the state of West Bengal. Such erosional features and the bedding structures exposed along the plain of erosional sites help in the interpretation of the coastal morphodynamics along the vulnerable coastal tract of the state.

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