Bhubaneswar, July 25: Sea water recently inundated Podampetta village in Palibandha panchayat area of Ganjam district damaging several houses, apart from nets and the fishing tackle of local residents.

This was not the first time the village had faced such a situation. For those, who live by the sea at Podampetta, life has turned into an ordeal in the past few years with tidal waves gradually eating into the land mass.

The fate of Podampetta is also shared by scores of other coastal villages in Odisha where the sea has become unpredictably rough. Official sources said that about 187 kilometres of the state’s 480-km coastline has been exposed to erosion because of a number of factors.

The assessment made on the basis of long-term shoreline changes has been a cause of concern for scientists and environmentalists alike. The erosion has been most visible in areas near the Gopalpur port, Puri beach and the adjoining Konark-Chandrabhaga-Ramachandi stretch.

Puri town was gripped by panic in 2007 when a part of the road running parallel to the beach was eroded by the waves that made deep inroads into the shoreline. Ever since, the local administration has sought to prevent further damage by fortifying the shoreline with sandbags and stone boulders though these are not considered as permanent solution.

Official sources said geotubes could be a lasting solution to the erosion problem, but they would wait to see how these help to prevent erosion at the erosion-prone Pentha village in Kendrapara district where these have already been pressed into service.