Physical Aspects and Coastal Features

Abstract

The coastal zone of West Bengal, characterized as a typical lowland coast under a meso-macrotidal regime, registers evidence of coastal processes through accretion and erosion that control the configuration of the coastline. West Bengal coast is a dynamic coastal tract in nature as evidenced by severe erosion that leads to lowering of coastal plains and landward advancement of coastline as it is a cyclone-prone area. The coastal zone of the state is the outcome of extensive fluvio-marine deposits of the combined effects of the Ganga–Brahmaputra River and the Bay of Bengal. Tidal fluctuations, wave parameters, longshore currents, sand flats, and beach ridges are the characteristic features of the coastal areas of the state. Major catastrophic events like cyclonic storms, tidal bores, storm surges, spilling to collapsing breaking types, high tidal range, strong littoral drift control the coastal configuration of the state’s coastal region. Such coastal features along with other related structures exposed in the coastal plain help in the interpretation of the coastal morphodynamics along the vulnerable coastal tract of the state of West Bengal. The vulnerable coastal area is a sediment starved zone due to the peculiar pattern of sediment transport by the Hugli River on the east and Subarnarekha on the west and the Bay of Bengal from the south for the long period. Apart from the sediment starvation in the coastal areas of West Bengal, the coastal water gets polluted at present because of the rise in anthropogenic activities.