Mangalore has low tsunami risk'

Mangalore, March 26: The risk of tsunami in Mangalore is low, K.R. Subrahmanya, former Chairman, Department of Marine Geology, Mangalore University, has said.

He was speaking to media on the sidelines of a two-day seminar on “Coastal hazards, resources and management” organised by the department at Mangalagangotri on Friday.

“Mangalore is at low risk, provided we do not interfere too much, which means we should not build too many seawalls, harbours and jetties. Mangalore is at low risk because the land here is gradually rising at a rate of 1 to 1.5 mm a year whereas other parts of the globe are facing a rising sea-level,” he said.

The movement of the Indian landmass northward was being limited by the Himalayas, and therefore, there was a “buckling” of the landmass horizontally, along a line from Mulky to the Pulicat Lake. “On a scale of 10, Mangalore gets 1 or 2 marks for its vulnerability to a tsunami. Also, Tannirbhavi is not prone to a threat though southern Ullal is under threat,” he said giving Ullal 8 or 9 marks out of 10 for vulnerability. At the inaugural session of the seminar, T.C. Shivashankara Murthy, Vice-Chancellor of Mangalore University, said that trying to map areas susceptible to tsunamis was a laudable effort. An effort must be made to preserve and protect the coastal areas.

Inaugurating the seminar, Mr. Subrahmanya spoke about the evolution of west coast of India. He said the two coasts had distinct histories of their own and the west coast originated subsequent to the east coast.

During the seminar, there will be “invited talks” from experts and presentation of 42 abstracts by research scholars and staff of various universities and institutions, including National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Goa University, National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal, University of Madras, Bharathidasan University, National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Goa, Pondicherry University, Cochin University of Science and Technology and Centre for Earth Science Studies, Thiruvananthapuram.