Is There a Tomorrow?: The Story
of Survival of Sunderbans Against
Climate Change
Haimanti Pakrashi
Abstract Occurrences of earthquakes, floods, unseasonal rainfall, heat flashes, and
ravaging forest fires are increasing in different parts of the world. The climate is
changing, sea levels are rising all around the world; thus endangering the coastal
communities. Their lives are increasingly becoming unsustainable. Are these phenomenons naturally occurring or Anthropogenic? These are some of the questions
which scientists globally are looking answers for. New researches show that the
global temperature will rise by 4 °C by the end of this century. The consequences
for such an occurrence would be huge in the lives of all the inhabitants of this
planet. Our lives might change forever. Scientists and scholars are trying to come
up with solutions to deal with the incoming crisis, but unfortunately for the coastal
communities life has already started changing. They are already feeling the wrath of
climate change. In this paper, I am going to discuss the present socio-economic
conditions of the island dwellers of Sunderbans. Sunderbans are a cluster of
mangrove forested islands in the mouth of the Ganga Brahmaputra delta. The
fragile ecosystem and the endangered animals of this region have received substantial academic attention but my paper talks about the daily struggle of the million
plus poverty-stricken people who live on these islands. The threats of climate
change like the rising sea level, extreme weather events like hurricanes, cyclones
and floods, loss of livelihoods and finally people being forced to leave their coastal
homelands for higher and greener pastures is already happening in these islands for
quite some years now. This paper discusses about the problems faced by the people
of Sunderbans engaged in farming and fishing. The embankment protecting their
land is poorly maintained and gets damaged during the frequent storms and high
tides, which eats up their land on a regular basis. Already a few of the islands have
disappeared altogether. Mangroves are the only natural protection these islands
have; thus afforestation measures are required on a large scale. Out of desperation,
these people enter the reserved forest area kept for tigers and other animals and get
eaten away. Is this a way to live? Is there a way forward for these island dwellers
H. Pakrashi (&)
Centre for Regional Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: haimanti.pakrashi@gmail.com
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_21
355
of Survival of Sunderbans Against
Climate Change
Haimanti Pakrashi
Abstract Occurrences of earthquakes, floods, unseasonal rainfall, heat flashes, and
ravaging forest fires are increasing in different parts of the world. The climate is
changing, sea levels are rising all around the world; thus endangering the coastal
communities. Their lives are increasingly becoming unsustainable. Are these phenomenons naturally occurring or Anthropogenic? These are some of the questions
which scientists globally are looking answers for. New researches show that the
global temperature will rise by 4 °C by the end of this century. The consequences
for such an occurrence would be huge in the lives of all the inhabitants of this
planet. Our lives might change forever. Scientists and scholars are trying to come
up with solutions to deal with the incoming crisis, but unfortunately for the coastal
communities life has already started changing. They are already feeling the wrath of
climate change. In this paper, I am going to discuss the present socio-economic
conditions of the island dwellers of Sunderbans. Sunderbans are a cluster of
mangrove forested islands in the mouth of the Ganga Brahmaputra delta. The
fragile ecosystem and the endangered animals of this region have received substantial academic attention but my paper talks about the daily struggle of the million
plus poverty-stricken people who live on these islands. The threats of climate
change like the rising sea level, extreme weather events like hurricanes, cyclones
and floods, loss of livelihoods and finally people being forced to leave their coastal
homelands for higher and greener pastures is already happening in these islands for
quite some years now. This paper discusses about the problems faced by the people
of Sunderbans engaged in farming and fishing. The embankment protecting their
land is poorly maintained and gets damaged during the frequent storms and high
tides, which eats up their land on a regular basis. Already a few of the islands have
disappeared altogether. Mangroves are the only natural protection these islands
have; thus afforestation measures are required on a large scale. Out of desperation,
these people enter the reserved forest area kept for tigers and other animals and get
eaten away. Is this a way to live? Is there a way forward for these island dwellers
H. Pakrashi (&)
Centre for Regional Studies, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India
e-mail: haimanti.pakrashi@gmail.com
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
S. Nautiyal et al. (eds.), Climate Change Challenge (3C)
and Social-Economic-Ecological Interface-Building, Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-31014-5_21
355