#save sunderbans

The Sunderbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaptra and the Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It is shared by two countries with 60% of its area lying in Bangladesh and the remaining 40% in India. It covers 10,000 sq. kilometres across the two countries and is home to 4.5 million people who depend on it’s biodiversity for their livelihood. 

The Sundarbans Mangroves ecoregion on the coast forms the seaward fringe of the delta and is the world's largest mangrove ecosystem, with 20,400 square kilometres (7,900 sq mi) of an area covered. The dominant mangrove species is locally known as sundri or sundari which is what gives the area its name. Translated to the native language it stands for “beautiful” (sundar) “forest” (ban/s). Twenty-six of the fifty broad mangrove species found in the world grow well in the Sundarbans. 

The Sunderbans was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. The Sunderban National Park is a biosphere reserve, national park and tiger reserve all at once.

Why are the Sunderbans important?

The Sunderbans is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tracts of mangrove forests of the world. The Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF), located in the south-west of Bangladesh is the largest contiguous mangrove forest in the world. The Sundarbans is home to globally endangered species including the Royal Bengal Tiger, Ganges and Irawadi dolphins, estuarine crocodiles and the critically endangered endemic river terrapin (Batagur baska). It is the only mangrove habitat in the world for Panthera tigris tigris species. 

One of the largest remaining areas of mangroves in the world, the Sundarbans supports an exceptional level of biodiversity in both the terrestrial and marine environments, including significant populations of globally endangered cat species, such as the Royal Bengal Tiger. Population censuses of Royal Bengal Tigers estimate a population of between 400 to 450 individuals, a higher density than any other population of tigers in the world.  Its exceptional biodiversity is expressed in a wide range of flora; 334 plant species belonging to 245 genera and 75 families, 165 algae and 13 orchid species. It is also rich in fauna with 693 species of wildlife which includes; 49 mammals, 59 reptiles, 8 amphibians, 210 white fishes, 24 shrimps, 14 crabs and 43 mollusks species.

Why am I suddenly going off about the Sunderbans?

The reason I’m doing that is because West Bengal and Odisha (east Indian states) just experienced a level 6 super cyclone named ‘Amphan’ two days ago. It hit Kolkata (capital of West Bengal and where I live) on Wednesday evening (20th May). It is the worst super cyclone to hit the Bay of Bengal in 20 years. The highest wind speeds recorded reached 260kmph.

Now, whenever the coastal areas of east India face storms or cyclones especially with winds blowing south to north (which it did this time) the Sunderbans bear the brunt of it. The mangrove trees and the forest cover soften the blow for the inlands. It was no different this time except the damage was catastrophic, worsened by the Covid-19 crisis that India is currently battling. India reached it’s highest daily peak in cases with over 6 thousand cases and the total cases in the country now are about 124,462. We’re on day 57 of a country wide lockdown.

After the cyclone wrecked havoc across cities, the only coverage that west bengal and odisha got from the national media was headlines with “beautiful and vibrant skies post storm”. It took our Prime Minister over a day to acknowledge the crisis. It is yet to be labelled as a national disaster, which it is. Foreign news outlets like CNN, BBC and Alazeera covered the natural disaster before our own mainstream news outlets did. The amount the state has received as aid from the Centre is menial (10,000 million) given the extent of the damage. The amount may not seem like menial but contrast it with this: in 2018 the Centre allocated 30,000 million (THRICE the amount) for building a statue of a freedom fighter (it’s not even that great. just huge, absolutely unnecessary and only for money splashing purposes). That is not to mention that the Centre already owes the State money from several previous instances (of which amount the “aid” is, is only a fraction). The number of people living in the state of West Bengal itself is over a 100 million. Thousands have lost their homes and means of livelihood. 50,000 trees have fallen across the state, the Kolkata airport was flooded, trees were uprooted from the pavements, lamp posts uprooted and crashed into electric wires, electricity went out for hours (it still hasn’t come back everywhere, it’s been over 24 hours) tin sheets peeled off buildings like foil and all this is a metropolitan city. The damage caused in the rural areas are far, far worse. 

Back to the Sunderbans. In addition to the regular damage, the cyclone caused even more pressing concerns for the forests. As a result of the lockdown, close to 5000 families were already starving. A major source of income for the people living there is tourism, which is of course drastically affected during the coronavirus epidemic. As a result of the damage caused by natural disasters, the people living there have historically migrated to cities in search for earning money which they can’t do now (coronavirus, lockdown). Instead, the virus has caused a reverse migration wherein people from other places have returned to their native villages. The cyclone also caused the ingress of seawater inland which causes salinity to rise which in short is just bad for many reasons:  top dying diseases affect major flora due to salinity (it affects forest cover and the sunderbans are already losing an increasing amount of their mangrove trees due to this), agricultural lands lose their fertility (areas retained salt water for close to three years after the tropical cyclone Aila hit the area in 2009), decrease in fresh water fishes (due to problems with breeding). In short, livelihood of the 4.5 million people severely affected. This isn’t even the end of it. The cyclone hit us two days ago, things are only going to get worse.

This is in no way a comprehensive post regarding the damage the Sunderbans are facing, either in general due to climate change or specifically post Amphan.  This is just all the information I could put together as quickly as I could. In fact, due to the lockdown and its compounded problem, officials still don’t have a way to ascertain the extent of the damage in the area since motor boats haven’t been allowed into the territory since March 25 and there is no way to monitor the wild animals. However, there is no doubt that that damage is most definitely extensive. 

In short, Sunderbans is currently running the risk of becoming extinct or going underwater very soon (not just due to Amphan but it has most certainly accelerated the process). Sea level rise is making entire islands vanish.We lose about 200 yards a year to the sea.  It was originally measured (about 200 years ago) to be of about 16,700 square kilometres (6,400 sq mi). Now it has dwindled into about 1/3 of the original size. It’s depletion will cause millions of people to become unemployed and lead to a whole other migrant crisis and not to mention the socio economic implications which are plenty and are a lot more threatening and terrifying than I can begin to comprehend. 

Please reblog this to spread awareness about the Sunderbans. It is just as much in danger of extinction as the Amazon was last year. Don’t not reblog this because you haven’t heard about the Sunderbans. That’s the point of it. Just because you haven’t heard about it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. That’s exactly why you need to signal boost it so more people can be aware of how we’re losing the beloved ecosystem of our state to climate change and no news coverage. 

Why should I care if this doesn’t affect me?