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Almost one-third of India’s 6,632km coastline was lost to soil erosion between 1990 and 2016, said a National Centre for Coastal Research report. The report, National Assessment of Shoreline Changes along Indian coast, which mapped the shoreline changes along the Indian coast for the last 26 years, found that the West Bengal coast was the most vulnerable. The minister for earth sciences, Mr Harsh Vardhan, told Parliament that the eastern coast underwent more erosion due to frequent cyclonic activities from Bay of Bengal in past three decades, compared to the western coast, which remained largely stable. While 33% of the coast was under erosion, only 29% was accreting (growing) and 38% was in stable state, he added.