International Journal of Marine Science 2016, Vol.6, No.36, 1-8
1
Research Article Open Access
Environmental Impact Assessment of Coastal Ecosystem in Tamil Nadu, India
with Hedonic and Travel Cost Models
J.S. Amarnath
, A. Mouna
Department of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai- 625 104, India
Corresponding author email
International Journal of Marine Science 2016, Vol.6, No.36 doi
Received: 13 Aug., 2016
Accepted: 30 Sep., 2016
Published: 10 Oct., 2016
This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Amarnath J.S.and Mouna A., 2016, Environmental Impact Assessment of Coastal Ecosystem in Tamil Nadu, India with Hedonic and Travel Cost Models,
International Journal of Marine Science, 6(36): 1-8 (doi
Abstract
The study on positive and negative externalities of coastal ecosystem with categories of serious affected, medium affected
and low affected fishermen was taken up in the Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu. Based on the intensity of pollution, they were
categorized into seriously affected, moderately affected and low affected and six villages were selected with sample size of 120. The
negative externality was assessed by hedonic model. For all the categories of affected fishermen, the house value was positively
influenced by the household income, water quality, distance from sea and amenities of the house. Positive externalities were studied
with travel cost method for mangrove and silver beach with sample size of 40 tourists for each tourist spot. The estimated total
consumer surplus for mangrove forest was Rs. 199.84 crores and for silver beach, the consumer surplus was Rs. 438.60 crores.
Keywords
Externalities; Hedonic model; Travel cost model; Consumer surplus
1 Introduction
The coastline of Tamil Nadu runs to a length of about 1076kms and constitutes about 15 per cent of the coastal
length of India along Bay of Bengal. Tamil Nadu is endowed with one of the largest and richest fisheries in India.
The State has 1.9 lakh squaremeter of EEZ besides 21 coral islands in the Gulf of Mannar with rich habitats of
corals, coastal lagoons (Pulicat Lake and Muthupet swamp) and estuaries. Tamil Nadu ranked fourth in marine
production in the country. Tamil Nadu with its 1076 km of coastline, 1.90 lakh sq.km of Exclusive Economic
Zone (EEZ) and a continental shelf of about 41412 Sq km is one of the leading producers of both marine and
inland fish and fish products. The marine fish potential in Tamil Nadu estimated at 7 lakh metric tonnes.
In Cuddalore district, the fishing vessels namely 975 mechanized boats, 367 country crafts (vallams) and 6549
catamarans are functioning. The fish production in Cuddalore district craft wise during 2010-11 was 16059.46
tonnes for mechanized boats and for non-mechanized motorized boats was 5333.36 tonnes. It was 3358.90 tonnes
for non-mechanized non-motorized boats. Shore seine crafts yielded a fish catch of 780.02 tonnes.
The negative externalities of SIPCOT industrial pollution, shrimp farming and farm house development was valued
by indirect valuation methodology of hedonic valuation model in this article. The positive externalities are
associated with coastal tourism in the mangrove forest area and Silver Beach. The mangrove forest area in
Cuddalore is around 1100 hectare with 51 small islands. Theses mangrove wetlands provide a variety of protective
and productive services and guard especially during tsunami. Silver beach is located 2 km from downtown and it
is the second longest beach on the Coromandel Coast. It is one of the longest beaches with untouched by the busy
life of the city. The positive externalities of coastal tourism were valued by Travel Cost model.
2. Methodology
Sampling procedure
In Cuddalore district, many fishing villages were affected by SIPCOT industries, farm house development and
shrimp farming. Among these, six fishing villages were selected purposively to study the negative externalities.
Based on the intensity of pollution, they were categorized into seriously affected, medium affected and low affected.
