{"id":341083,"date":"2025-06-21T18:41:34","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T13:11:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/?p=341083"},"modified":"2025-06-21T18:41:34","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T13:11:34","slug":"indias-coastline-grows-by-3500-km","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-coastline-grows-by-3500-km\/","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Coastline Grows by 3,500 km"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>News:<\/strong> India\u2019s coastline is now far longer than it used to be, almost 50% more than the previous length.<\/p>\n<h2>India\u2019s Coastline Grows by 3,500 km<\/h2>\n<figure id=\"attachment_341086\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-341086\" style=\"width: 482px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-341086\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express-279x300.png?resize=482%2C518&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"482\" height=\"518\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express.png?resize=279%2C300&amp;ssl=1 279w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express.png?resize=768%2C827&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express.png?w=819&amp;ssl=1 819w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-341086\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Indian Express<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Some post reassessment data: <\/strong>Earlier, the length of India\u2019s coastline used to be <strong>7,516 km<\/strong>. Now this coastline has been measured to be <strong>11,098 km.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The <strong>number of islands<\/strong> in India has <strong>increased slightly<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Reasons for the increase in India\u2019s coastline length<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>New Measurement Techniques:<\/strong> The <strong>earlier measurement<\/strong> was based on data that were of the scale of <strong>1:4,500,000 (one to forty-five lakh),<\/strong> or smaller.\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>recent exercise<\/strong> calculated the length of the coastline using data that had a scale of <strong>1:250,000 (one to 2.5 lakh).<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Higher resolution data<\/strong> can capture the coastline, its bends and curves, in more intricate details.\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>low-resolution data<\/strong>, these details get smoothened out, and appear as straight lines. The loss of bends and curves would shorten the length.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The previous estimation was a result of more <strong>conventional and manual calculations<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Inclusion of coastlines<\/strong> of many <strong>off-shore islands<\/strong> that had been left out of previous calculations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>The coastline paradox<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is a <strong>mathematical phenomenon<\/strong> where the measured length of a <strong>coastline increases indefinitely<\/strong> as the measurement <strong>scale becomes finer<\/strong>, preventing a single, well-defined length.<\/li>\n<li>This occurs due to the <strong>fractal nature<\/strong> of coastlines, where smaller-scale features (e.g., bays, inlets, rocks) reveal increasing complexity.<\/li>\n<li>The coastline paradox <strong>extends to many other similar natural features<\/strong> such as <strong>river networks and mountain ranges.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Reassessment of coastlines <strong>becomes necessary<\/strong> also on account of natural processes such as coastal erosion and human interventions like land reclamation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Increase in numbers of islands<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Related ambiguities:<\/strong> There are specific kinds of ambiguities in accounting the numbers of islands.\n<ul>\n<li>For example, a location might be an island during high tide but connected to the land during low tide.<\/li>\n<li>In 2016, the Office of the <strong>Surveyor General of India listed 1,382 offshore<\/strong> islands in India while a count by state governments, and agencies like the Coast Guard and Indian Navy had yielded a <strong>lesser number of 1,334.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Post reassessment data on Islands:<\/strong> A subsequent data reconciliation exercise has arrived at a new number of <strong>offshore islands<\/strong> in the <strong>country &#8211; 1,298.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>This exercise also listed <strong>91 inshore islands<\/strong>. The <strong>total number of islands is 1,389.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>These <strong>do not include<\/strong> the large number of <strong>river islands<\/strong> in states such as <strong>Assam and West Bengal<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_341087\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-341087\" style=\"width: 616px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-341087\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express1-300x202.png?resize=616%2C415&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"616\" height=\"415\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express1.png?resize=300%2C202&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express1.png?resize=1024%2C690&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express1.png?resize=768%2C518&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Source-Indian-Express1.png?w=1307&amp;ssl=1 1307w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 616px) 100vw, 616px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-341087\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source &#8211; Indian Express<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>Implications<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>All the changes in length of coastline or number of islands are largely <strong>academic in nature<\/strong>, but these are <strong>not irrelevant<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The new numbers result in a <strong>better understanding of India\u2019s territory and terrain. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>There are <strong>administrative, developmental and security implications<\/strong> with some certain <strong>operational significance<\/strong> as well.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: India\u2019s coastline is now far longer than it used to be, almost 50% more than the previous length. India\u2019s Coastline Grows by 3,500 km Some post reassessment data: Earlier, the length of India\u2019s coastline used to be 7,516 km. Now this coastline has been measured to be 11,098 km. The number of islands in&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/indias-coastline-grows-by-3500-km\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">India\u2019s Coastline Grows by 3,500 km<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1566,3127,11209,12039,1],"tags":[11872],"class_list":["post-341083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-factly-articles","category-economy","category-geography-in-news","category-knolls","category-uncategorized","tag-9pm-daily-factly","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=341083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/341083\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=341083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=341083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=341083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}