Bhubaneswar: Coastal erosion continues to be a major challenge for the state government that recently had to relocate the residents of Satbhaya in Kendrapara, one of the worst affected areas by the phenomenon.

Most families in the area have moved to the resettlement colony at Bagapatia, a few kilometres away, and those that remain are in the process of shifting.

Before moving their belongings to Bagapatia, the people of Satabhaya, where large chunks landmass have been consumed by the sea over the years, had shifted the temple of their presiding deity, Panchuvarahi, to their new address.

Sea erosion has been a major problem at the nearby Pentha village as well. However, the people of Pentha have been lucky in that a geo-synthetic tube wall, the first of its kind in the state, came up at the village in 2016 to check the marauding sea. Officials would like to repeat the experiment in other erosion-hit areas of the state but for its prohibitive cost. "The wall at Pentha came up at a cost of Rs 32.95 crore, which makes it a costly model to be repeated at other places. Besides, sometimes the tubes burst like it happened during the construction of the wall at Pentha once," said an official who was part of the Pentha project.

Sources said that more than 36 per cent of the state's 480km coastline was facing the threat of erosion, the phenomenon also being visible on the Puri beach and along the Puri-Konark marine drive.

Parts of Ganjam district, too, have been affected by the problem. Former environment secretary Bhagirathi Behera admitted that sea erosion was a major threat and had to tackled urgently.

K. Alleya, a fisherman from Sanaarjapalli in Ganjam, said several villages including his own were being threatened by the sea. "Unless steps are taken to address the problem immediately, fishermen would be forced to leave the area," he said.

Environmentalists have also expressed concern over the issue and called for immediate intervention of the government. "Though the state's vast coastline is a blessing the problem of coastal erosion has to be tackled on a war footing," said green activist Shashi Kant Mishra.