India's Coastline Length: The Maths of Lengthening

Key Points

• 1India's coastline length increased from 7,516.6 km to 11,098.8 km, as per the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.
• 2The new figure resulted from using electronic navigation charts at a finer scale of 1:250,000.
• 3The change in length is related to the coastline paradox, which involves the geometry of measuring irregular coastlines.
• 4A longer coastline influences maritime security plans, disaster preparedness, and fishing rights.
• 5The government will revise the coastline length every 10 years from 2024-2025.