Rising sea level due to climate change

August 2025

Rising sea levels affects low lying coastal areas ¹

Rising sea a major consequence of global warming, with implications for low lying coastal areas.

Coral reefs vulnerable

Coral reefs, highly sensitive and particularly vulnerable to fluctuations in sea level.
When sea level rises, sunlight may no longer penetrate the water to reach the coral reef, which can lead to coral bleaching.
Changes in tide patterns and increasing coastal erosion can further stress reef ecosystem and the bear the brunt of warmer waters and ocean acidification.

Monitoring sea level rise in Indian Ocean

Monitoring sea level rises in the Indian ocean, through Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Programme (1985 - 1994) and later incorporated into Global Sea Level Observing system.

Rises 3.3mm per year , above than global average

Ministry of Earth Sciences says, "The Indian ocean levels rising at around 3.3 mm/year, higher than the global average." The Ocean is also experiencing above average warming.

Risen by 0.3 metres in the last 90 year period

Sea level had risen by 0.3 metres over the 90 year period.

Phases of increase

The rate of rise increased markedly over time:

1 - 1.84 mm in 1930 - 1959
2.76 - 4.12 mm in 1960 - 1992
3.91 - 4.87 mm in 1990 - 2019

Started way before we assumed

Sea level rise in the region began in the late 1950s, decades earlier than previously believed. Common assumption was that the sea level rise only began around 1990.

30 to 40cm rise in last half century

Maldives, Lakshadweep, Chagos archipelago have been experiencing a significant rise for at least 60 years, with total increase of 30 to 40cm over the last half century.

El Nino or Negative IOD slowed the rise

Periods of slowed or interrupted growth were found to correspond with major El Nino or negative Indian Ocean Dipole phenomena, which known to stress corals and lead to bleaching.

Coral Microatolls

Coral microatolls, a disk shaped colonies that grow sideways once their upward growth as become constrained by the height of the lowest tide. This can provide the long term records of sea level. This limitation reflects the lowest water levels in the area over time. This can survive for decades, or even centuries, growing slowly in response to changing sea levels.

Impact of climate change on marginal farmers - report

Definition

In India, marginal farmers are those with up to 1 hectare of agricultural land and who own or cultivate up to one hectare of agricultural land, as a landowner, sharecropper, or tenant.
The farmers who own land between one to two hectares are called small farmers

Together, these two categories constitute 89.4 per cent of all farm families, and their numbers are growing.

All India Report on Agriculture Census 2015-2016 - over 65.4 per cent farmers in our country are marginal.

The 2016 agriculture census records - 14.64 crore agricultural households in India, regardless of holding size

Cropping Seasons

Kharif (June-October),
Rabi (November-April/May), and
Zaid (March-June).

By

Forum of Enterprises for Equitable Development (FEED), in collaboration with
Development Intelligence Unit (DIU)

Report Title

State of Marginal Farmers of India, 2024

Coverage

covered 6,615 marginal farmers across 21 states.

Report findings:

the percentage of farmers seeking supplementary incomes is increasing year upon year
Around 41 percent of small and marginal farmers in India have reported that extreme weather conditions — drought, excessive or non-seasonal rains, and floods — have had an adverse impact on their cropping cycle
50 percent of paddy farmers and over 40 percent of wheat farmers losing more than half their crops
Crop losses are observed across all types and seasons
over half the farmers reported losses in staple crops.
custom hiring centres (CHCs), which offer farm machinery for rent, are not readily available to most small-scale farmers.
Two-thirds of those interviewed reported no CHC within 10 km of their village
those who do have a CHC nearby, only 14.4 percent had ever hired equipment from these centres.
one in four faced challenges, including financial constraints, lack of available inputs or physical resources in their areas, and insufficient follow-up technical support.

Challenges climate-resilient agricultural (CRA) practices

high up-front costs,
limited knowledge about options,
small land holdings, and
lack of physical resources Print

Issue

the number of beneficiaries under PM-Kisan Samman Nidhi has come down from a peak of 10.47 crore in 2022 to 9.26 crore in the latest round.
marginal farmers often engage in ‘the peasant mode of production’, meaning they produce just about enough for the family, with little marketable surplus

Positive side

Linking MNREGA with CRA is an important intervention, and several states like Odisha, Maharashtra, and Bihar have shown good initiatives in this regard.
Better convergence between the ministries of rural development and agriculture have certainly been raised as both are now under Shivraj Singh Chouhan, under whose chief ministership Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest growth in agriculture (7.3 per cent) in the country in the last decade.

Steps taken by states

Krushak Assistance for Livelihood and Income Augmentation (KALIA) of the Government of Odisha, which extends the coverage, not just to marginal farmers but also to sharecroppers and landless agricultural workers to take up cultivation, thereby ensuring that no lands are left fallow.

Bhavantar Bhugtan Yojana of Madhya Pradesh in which the government compensates the farmer for the price differential between the farm gate and MSP

Initiatives to promote climate smart agriculture

ITC’s climate-smart villages,
micro-insurer IBISA’s partnership with NGO Dhan Foundation,
Tata Trusts’ Collectives for Integrated Livelihoods Initiative that reaches out to thousands of farmers with its digital weather index-based insurance, and
EM3 Agri Services, a custom-based hiring company that has created a pan-India network of farm service centres.

Print - Marginal farmers find it difficult to access govt schemes

Climate change and Neonatal Death

By researchers from Postdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, a global think-tank based in Germany

Neonatal death

When a baby dies within 28 days after they are born.

Still birth

If a baby dies after 24 weeks of pregnancy, but before they’re born, it is known as a stillbirth

Study

How extreme temperatures caused by climate change leads to neonatal deaths in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

Data was taken from the Demographic and Health Survey, which is the “largest international dataset on neonatal deaths in LMICs”.

A distinction between newborn deaths in the first 24 hours of life (very early neonatal deaths) and in the first month of life (neonatal deaths) was made.

Report findings

Between 2001-2019, 4.3 percent of the all babies that died across 29 countries within the first month of their birth died due to temperature-related anomalies

Pakistan, Sierra Leone and Mali — which have the highest neonatal mortality rates of all countries studied

32 percent of the heat-related neonatal deaths in the 29 countries, including India, were due to climate change

The cold-related neonatal deaths in the same period were reduced by 30 percent due to climate change.

India’s neonatal mortality rate is around 3,200 deaths per 100,000 births

Less than 15 percent of heat-related neonatal deaths in India were due to climate change

Reduction of cold-related deaths due to climate change is lingering in the 0-15 percent range

Reference

The Hindu 01.09.2025 ↩