Stranded in the SunderbansRINA MUKHERJI

The Hindu, Chennai, 24 Feb 2008

Rising sea levels and subsequent loss ofland are contributing to increasing thenumber of environmental refugees in theSunderbans.

Life on the remote inhabited islandsof the Indian Sundarbans is far re-moved from the world of glitzyshopping malls, flyovers, jet-set-

ting middle classes and highflying lifethat India Shining has come to be ex-emplified by. In fact, the basic amen-ities of life are yet to be available for theinhabitants of these islands. Yet, poor-est on these islands are paying the priceof global warming and rising sea levelsas more than 10,000 environmentalrefugees struggle for survival here.

Power has just come to G Plot andSagar though electricity is available on-ly for a few hours after dusk. Transportwithin the islands is by van-rickshaw.Because it is the venue of the GangaSagar Mela, Sagar is comparatively bet-ter endowed with larger vessels cater-ing to its connectivity with the outsideworld. But where G Plot is concerned,the block headquarters on Patharprati-ma island are a full three hours away bymotor boat. In Sagar, vessels do notmove back to the mainland beyond lateafternoon, since the tide changes direc-tion.

Grim scenarioHealth services are next to nil. Even

where a Block Primary Health Centre(BPHC) is present, which is akin to a30-bed hospital, the government stip-ulation of two general practitioners andtwo doctors is never met. Only generalpractitioners man the BPHCs. Out ofthe two doctors, only one is present atany given time, since each attends thehospital for just three days or so in aweek. As per a survey conducted by theHuman Development Centre under theaegis of the West Bengal VoluntaryHealth Association (WBVHA), of the 65sub-centres operating here, which wereto be manned by Auxiliary Nurse cumMidwives (ANMs), 15 lack ANMs. Inthe absence of regular power supply,and hence a cold chain to preserve vac-cines, most children remain un-immu-nised, as Attiar Rahman and Dilip Das,coordinators working with the HumanDevelopment Centre, tell me. Smallwonder then, that maternal and infantmortality rates are very high in theseparts.

Patharpratima is one of the few ma-jor islands with power. The block head-quarters is located here. There are 15grampanchayats that operate under itsaegis. Of these, four are on the main-land, while the rest are on the variousislands in and around Patharpratima.Yet, not all of them are equipped withprimary health centres. Brajaballahpur, G Plot and Digambarpur (on the main-land) have primary health centres(PHC). But Achintyapur, another largeisland, does not. Achintyapur is con-nected with Patharpratima by regularferries that ply every 45 minutes. Butthe southernmost point of Achintya-pur, K Plot, has just two ferries — one inthe morning and one in the evening toconnect it with Patharpratima island.Agriculture and fishing are the only twooccupations of the people on these is-lands. Life and livelihoods are totally inkeeping with the vagaries of nature.And yet, these densely populated is-lands are losing 70-100 bighas of landannually to pay for the sins of the well-heeled in India and abroad.

Erosion started around these partssome 35 years ago, according to 86-year-old Ratan Mondol, an ex-residentand farmer from Ghoramara. Sincethen, most of Ghoramara has beenswallowed up by the swirling seas.Right now, only a small strip of thisonce-huge island remains. The majormigration occurred 14 years ago, whennearly all the fertile land on the islandand homes were swallowed up. RatanMondol and his family moved to nearbySagar, where they were given one and ahalf bighas of land, a pond and a homeunder Indira Awas Yojana by the au-thorities. Mondol and his family havebeen growing paddy on the land, andeking out a living. However, Sagar itselfhas been experiencing rapid erosionover the last few years, with 100 bighasdisappearing annually into the sea. "Ido not know how long Sagar and peoplelike us will survive," Mondol exclaims.Further down the same road is anothercolony of refugees who moved in fromLohachhara, which the sea gobbled upin 1982, along with an uninhabited is-land, Bedford/ Suparibhanga. Each ref-ugee here was given five bighas of land,

without a home. They are generally de-pendent on fishing, and comparativelybetter off than the other migrants. Butgiven the dynamic nature of the ecosys-tem, the rising sea level and the subsid-ence encountered, there is hardly muchhope for any community here.

Vastly reduced in sizeThe same is the case with G Plot,

which is now reduced to one fourth itsoriginal size. A part of Patharpratimablock, G Plot originally comprised ninevillages — Gobardhanpur, Sitarampur,Budobudir Tat, Indrapur, Sattadaspur,north and south Surendraganj. Butsome 10-12 years ago, Gobardhanpurwas entirely swallowed up by the sea.The southern part of Sitarampur hasdisappeared, while the northern part isslowly getting swallowed up as the landgets eroded by the onslaught of the sea.

Anima and Ashwini Patra owned 16bighas of land in Gobardhanpur. Whenthe sea swallowed up their lands, theyhad to move north. But now, the familyof eight must make do by fishing anddoing menial jobs in the fields. Surabala

Das is an old widow who lost 10 bighasin Gobardhanpur. Her eldest son fellvictim to an undiagnosed fever, and theyounger son abandoned the family forbetter prospects. Her elder daughter-in-law, two grand-daughters and shetry hard to survive by begging and doingmenial jobs now. Sachindra Patra andhis three brothers lost nine bighas inGobardhanpur 23 years ago. "Ours wasamong the first to be gobbled up by therising sea", says Patra. Although he hasmanaged to buy some two bighas sincethen, he and his brothers have to workas labourers in other farms to makeends meet. In the cases cited above, thegovernment has given 1.5 bighas perfamily on which to build houses.

Rabin Burman and his wife gaze list-lessly at the waters of the Bay of Bengal.Memories are all that are left of theirhouse and land in south Sitarampurlost 15 years ago. None of the Sitaram-pur residents has received any of thegovernment's largesse, unlike the ma-jority of the Gobardhanpur refugees.Some have been given Below PovertyLine (BPL) cards, but many have not.

"It depends on one's political connec-tions," grumbles Anima Patra.

To be fair to the authorities, reliefand rehabilitation are difficult to guar-antee, with land in the southern fringesbreaking off in chunks in tandem withthe rising seas . Besides, another 50-60acres will be lost with a huge NABARD-funded brick embankment being builtby the state irrigation department tostem the erosion being wrought by thesea and adjoining rivers on the south-ernmost parts. This is also intended toprevent saline sea waters entering pad-dy fields and rendering them unfit forcultivation, as happened last year.

Would it work?However, Panchayat Samiti Chair-

man Haripada Samanta is not too opti-mistic of the newly-erectedembankments holding out for morethan four years. "Embankments havebeen continually built along the sea, butthey are easily breached by the surgingwaters. The only places where theywork are where mangroves protect theland." In that case, would he not suggest

regeneration of mangrove belts to pre-vent the sea from swallowing up theland? "There is no land left for man-grove regeneration. Whatever landcould be utilised, is being run over bythe sea."

Perhaps, the government could pro-mote salinity-resistant paddy varietiesin these parts, so that land overrun bysaline water would not be rendered to-tally infertile. Saline-resistant indige-nous varieties are so resilient that theycan be cultivated in comparatively highsaline soils, as agricultural scientist Dr.Anupam Paul points out. But, the go-vernment has yet to promote such pad-dy in these parts.

Most significantly, it is imperativethat communities and elected Pan-chayat representatives are involvedwith scientists in formulating a multi-pronged strategy by the authorities tocombat the disastrous effects of globalwarming and rising sea levels in theSundarbans. Or else, we may be hur-tling down an abyss of no return, withthe numbers of those displaced sur-passing our worst nightmares.

<title>Stranded in the Sunderbans</title><author>Rina Mukherji</author><keywords>TS1-D NGR1</keywords><publication>The Hindu</publication><pubDate>24/02/2008</pubDate><description>Life on the remote inhabited islandsof the Indian Sundarbans is far removed from theworld of glitzy shopping malls, flyovers, jet-set-ting middle classes and highflying life that IndiaShining has come to be exemplified by. In fact,the basic amenities of life are yet to be available forthe inhabitants of these islands. Yet, poorest onthese islands are paying the price of global warmingand rising sea levels as more than 10,000 environmentalrefugees struggle for survival here.</description><classif>E25</classif><entrydt>27/02/2008</entrydt><sd>PG</sd>

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POSSIBLE WAY OUT: A mangrove nursery in the Sunderbans. PHOTO: AFP