IN SINKING ISLANDS,HOPE FLOATS

Until the water,like a great beast,rises. “I have lost count of the times the embankments along the shore have broken. New ones have been built,much closer to our lands. When I was little,my grandmother used to tell me the embankment was really far away,” Runa says.

Scientists at Jadavpur University’s School of Oceanographic Studies,who are studying the Sunderbans–the largest riverine delta and mangrove system in the world,which got its name from the Sundari tree–have found that the water here is rising fast,ostensibly due to global warming. “The water level in the Sunderbans has been rising 3.14 millimetres every year since 2000,as opposed to the global average of around 2 mm per year,” says Pranabes Sanyal,teacher at the school,and a member of National Coastal Zone Management Authority.
Farmers say storms have become frequent. Last year,entire chunks of land were swallowed up. Two islands–Lohachara and Suparibhanga–have already been completely submerged,leaving 5,000 homeless. Other islands like Mousani and Ghoramara are at risk.

JAVED SHAH,father of four,sits on the brick pieces of the broken embankment that once girded the island. Where the sea now flows,Javed once grew paddy,his fields between the old embankment and the village. “My house was washed away. Each year,the sea seemed closer,and last year,my fields were gone forever,” Javed says. His new house,built after the mighty rains subsided in September last year,is made of mud and may not withstand the next storm.
Like all the other people in the tiny village–one of four villages on the island–Javed headed for the primary school building,the only ‘big’ building in the village,when the floods came. The lives of the island’s people–over 20,000–were in danger.

Farmers inland have been facing paddy crops failure due to increased salinity in freshwater as a result of seawater backtracking into smaller channels. “As part of the vulnerability mapping of the area,we are also studying salinity rise. The average salinity level was 17 parts per thousand (ppt) before 1996. Since then,it’s risen. In 2008,it was 25.2 ppt,and in January 2009,it was 26 ppt. It is rising each year,” Sanyal says.

World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) has now set up an early warnings centre at Mousani. Linked to Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services,Hyderabad,the centre can give early warnings of storms,tsunamis and rainfall. More importantly,WWF is now providing islanders with a more saline resistant paddy crop,locally called tal mugur.

“Sunderbans is a very active river delta,here land erosion is a reality. But now,it is faster than ever before. And it’s clear that the worst affected will be the very poor. We have to teach these people to adapt to the changing climate by giving them access to better crops and education on dealing with what might happen,” says Dr Anurag Danda,WWF Programme Coordinator.

BALI island,to the east of Mousani,doesn’t look much different. It lies opposite the Sunderbans tiger reserve,home to the only mangrove tigers in the world. Opinion is divided on how climate change is affecting tigers. Sanyal,who also served as director of the tiger reserve,and members of the Forest Department believe that rising salinity levels are forcing tigers to move north,away from the sea,further scattering the habitat.

Illegal trespassing in the protected reserve is another concern. Two years ago,Bashir went into the reserve for fishing. An irate adult tiger charged at him from the front. “Hanging on to a tree for life,my companions and I managed to drive the tiger away. Since that day,I have not returned to the forest,” he says. Last year,at least two trespassers were killed by tigers.

Anil Mistry,a graduate,used to poach the wild cats,like many others on the island. But then he heard the cry of a young fawn after he had shot its mother. It changed him forever. “I realised we have to live with the animals,” says Mistry,who now works with the Wildlife Protection Society of India,which has been fighting the practice of poaching in the area.
The people of Bali and Mousani–Hindus and Muslims–pray to Bon Bibi,an avatar of Durga. It’s the only way they know how to deal with the everyday hardships of their lives.