Ghoramara : The Sinking Island of Sundarban

(Rural Reporting)  -By Srijita Ghosh Jun 30,2021

Ghoramara Island in the Ganga estuary of West Bengal is slowly being submerged by rising sea levels, forcing people to migrate in large numbers. For people living on the islands in the Ganga estuary, climate change is a demon they battle every day. It has already transformed their lives and livelihood. This area is part of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, and one of the areas most vulnerable to climate change in India.

The Sagar block, which has a population of around 200,000 has to not only grapple with a rising sea level at a rate that is nearly 250 percent higher than global rate (8 mm per year compared with 3.23 mm per year, according to the school of oceanographic studies of Jadavpur University in Kolkata), but also stands exposed to increasing high intensity cyclones and storms. The rising sea has already submerged Lohachara island in Sagar block, eaten nearly three-fourths of Ghoramara island and severely affected the bigger Sagar island.

Ghoramara residents Gobindo karak and Tapas Karak both the farmers have lost their farms where paddy and betel vines grew. The repeated wraths of cyclones and rising sea water have broken their will to fight and survive. After years of resisting the call to move out and settle somewhere else , finally the duo have joined the exodus along with their family.

“ I can’t take this life of uncertainty any more . I have moved to a cousin’s place in Kakdwip. I hope to buy a small plot of land and settle there permanently” said Gobinda karak who has managed to salvage his four cows .

Located at the southern tip of Bengal, at the mouth of the sea, the island has been reduced to 4.8 square kilometre (square km) as compared to more than 9 square km in the 1970s due to severe erosion by three rivers. Hundreds of people have left the island for other states in search of job. Caught between the recent Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdown and the devastation left behind by cyclone Amphan and Yass , the environmental refugees from Bengal’s ‘vanishing’ island of Ghoramara now face an uncertain future.

While 50-year-old Sheikh Abdul Rauf returned home in Ghoramara a day after the Janata Curfew in March, his four sons – in their late 20’s and early 30s - managed to return from Kerala a day later on March 24. All of them had left the island at some point of time in search of a livelihood. But now they have all come back because of the fear of the pandemic and the lockdown.

“But see our fate. We were forced to leave the island in search of work after losing all our farmlands due to the erosion caused by rivers. Then the virus forced us to come back. Now the cyclone has again evicted us. Where are we supposed to go now?” said Rauf, while standing outside his hut badly damaged by the cyclone Yass.

Rabiul Saha an old resident of the island told “Firstpost” in 2019 “Those who have money can cross the sea , but those who do not wait like us to get drowned even if we get to the mainland we will remain refugees left with no home , no identity ,no community" .There is no provision for the resettlement of climate refugees.

Climate change is a natural security issue .When natural resources are in danger then the country is in danger . Time is running out but our leaders are not showing urgency that warrants this issue. Climate is an sleeping beast and we are constantly poking at it with sticks.