India, Dec. 2 -- Over a quarter of Odisha's coastline has been lost to erosion between 1990 and 2018, with approximately 140.72 km out of the state's total 549.5 km shoreline succumbing to the sea, according to data from the National Centre for Coastal Research (NCCR) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Informing this in the state assembly on Tuesday, state forest and environment minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said the coastal erosion has left dozens of villages across four districts grappling with land loss and displacement, prompting the state government to initiate what it describes as the country's first comprehensive rehabilitation package for communities affected by coastal erosion.

"Among the affected districts, Jagatsinghpur h...