Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in the Sundarban Delta and the Need for Green Management

Sundarban, covering southern parts of West Bengal (India) and Bangladesh, is tiger-reserve core area of 10,000 sq.km., plus fringe area forest with villages. It is the sea-facing part of world’s largest delta, through which rivers Ganga (Padma) and Bhagirathi flow into the Bay of Bengal—branching into hundreds of rivers and creeks. Sundarban eco-system is unique in housing a wide variety of flora (world’s largest mangrove forest) diverse fauna (home for Royal Bengal Tiger) and at least 2500 years of human settlement on land, and an interestingly rich aquatic collect on like fishes, dolphins, crocodiles and Olive Ridley turtles in water. All these made Sundarban worth saving as “World Heritage”, as declared by UN bodies. But the delicate ecological balance of this complex eco-system has now been affected badly by climate changes, triggered mainly by global warming. Two global warming effects—(i) rising sea level, eating up land in Sundarban, and (ii) shortening of Himalayan glaciers reducing the flow of fresh river water and subsequently increasing salinity of river and so l water in Sundarban—in particular, threaten life in Sundarban for plants, animals and human beings. Super-cyclone cum tsunami of 2009 flooded farmlands and ponds of Sundarban with sea-water. All these have lowered the already low income of its inhabitants to the stage of half–starvation and led to exodus of ~ 70 % of men to various cities of India. The left-out population with highly reduced male population is a major social problem, added to the already existing economic problem. Projects like luxury tourism at commercial scale ship-breaking and petro-chemical industries have been proposed with the advertised goal of generating new income avenues for the poor inhabitants. We firstly show that these projects are likely to further harm the delicate environment and life in Sundarban, and also damage the Sundarban economy in the long run. Secondly, Sundarban residents have no training to get these jobs and recreational tours by outsiders in Sundarban can create more socio-economic problems among them. So, we develop alternative green solutions to the problems arising from climate change and global warming Re-introduction of traditional cultivation of fruits, vegetables, chilly, paddy and pulses in Sundarban, better transport, solar energy, electrification and fish- and food-preservation industries—green avenues to give good income to the inhabitants—must replace the non-green city-centric projects.