India is a peninsular country as seen from its geographical location, extending into the Indian Ocean, which means it has a considerable length of coastlines. Option 1 suggests that 7 states share this coastline, option 2 suggests 8 states, option 3 suggests 9 states and option 4 suggests 10 states.

However, as per Indian geography, there are 9 coastal states. They are Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala on the west coast and Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal on the east coast. It is noteworthy that there are also 4 Union Territories (Daman and Diu, Pondicherry, Lakshadweep, and Andaman and Nicobar Islands) that have coastlines but are not included in the counting of the coastal states.

It`s important for students to distinguish between states and union territories while answering such questions. Since the question specifically asked for states, union territories are excluded. Thus, the correct answer is option 3 which states 9.