‘Facing a climate crisis, Sundarbans villagers feel nature must be respected’

Annu Jalais teaches South Asian studies at the National University of Singapore. Amites Mukhopadhyay teaches sociology at Jadavpur University. Sharing their insights on the Sundarbans with Times Evoke, they outline how climate change is engulfing the region, why this could cause distress migration — and how the villagers of the Sundarbans have interacted with nature so far:


There are tangible signs of climate change in the Sundarbans. The most striking is the rise in sea level, with the increased warming of the oceans. The region’s vulnerability is greatly heightened by these factors which increase the threat of submergence of inhabited islands and cause the frequency and violence of cyclonic storms to escalate. When we started our research in the region, the only storm people remembered was the one in 1988. As we move into the current century, cyclones have struck the region far more frequently — Sidr (2007), Aila (2009), Phailin (2013), Hudhud (2014) and Bulbul (2019), with Aila leaving millions homeless and landless, causing distress migration. When Amphan struck last year, in fact, people who’d left because of Aila were returning to the Sundarbans due to the Covid-19 lockdown. These people were poignantly caught between a rock and a hard place.



The region’s frequent flooding and embankment collapses have caused the disappearance of entire portions of settled islands. The loss of agricultural land, ponds and houses leaves people with little option but to migrate. Between Bangladesh and India, we could be looking at two million people living in the active delta who will be directly affected by climate change in the next decade. Some of this was avoidable. The building of the Farakka dam was a contributor to increased salinity levels as the ingress of the sea into the north started with the reduced pace of river water towards the south. The rise in sea level and the resultant embankment collapses played a role in increasing soil salinity, which negatively affected agriculture and freshwater pisciculture.

A DELICATE BALANCE: Residents of the Sundarbans, frequently buffeted by cyclonic storms, maintain a simple harmony in their challenging environment (Picture courtesy: Annu Jalai)

Ecological conditions are further declining. Forest exploitation, siltation and soil alkalinity are key stressors causing the loss of mangrove diversity. The ecosystem of mangroves can actually turn life-threatening when damaged — mangrove forests store four times more organic carbon than any other forest and are nature’s air purifiers. However, a decimated mangrove contributes massively to carbon emissions — about two percent of global mangrove carbon was lost between 2000 and 2012. This equals more than 300 million tons of CO2 emissions.

The local ecology is being further damaged by practices like the disposal of styrofoam and plastic cups by tourists. The mangrove’s pneumatophoric and prop roots form a barrier for such litter, which prevents the crucial gas exchanges that occur here, instead releasing harmful chemicals into the food chain, blocking canals and suffocating the forest. Such littering by tourists is perhaps the most environmentally harmful practice in the Sundarbans today and reflects a wanton attitude towards nature.



This behaviour is in contrast to the villagers of the Sundarbans, who live in challenging terrain but see themselves as a harmonious part of that environment. There is reverence for these forests which are seen as a sacred space, where humans and non-humans share resources. It is felt that humans are welcome if they abide by the ‘laws of the forest’ and, like the tigers who showed the original settlers of the Sundarbans compassion, humans should also show empathy to the forest’s non-humans. Locals feel this is such a harsh place — brackish water, cyclones, saline soil — that the geography itself turns humans and non-humans into ‘cantankerous’ creatures. This is why, in a sense, they ‘understand’ each other and are bound together in ties of solidarity.

BESEIGED: As the seas rise, climate change is making the islands of the Sundarbans far more fragile (Picture : iStock)

As people from different backgrounds settled here, they began to venerate Ma Bonbibi, a ‘superpower’ figure who saves people from man-eating tigers. Many villagers also use charms, which they receive in dreams or from tiger charmers, to ‘speak’ the language of tigers and request them politely to stay away while they work in the forest. In this understanding, people believe every creature has its rightful place in this topography. These villagers don’t take their environment or its resources for granted. Nor do they feel that these resources can be pillaged mindlessly.

Today, as climate change engulfs the mangroves, we need to engage with these ethical dealings and deep understandings. All over India, you find sacred groves, mountain goddesses and holy earth where a revered saint is buried or a miraculous water body located, where turtles can bless and fish can speak. These spaces teach us to be humble — they remind us of the interconnectedness of all life and emphasise why our relationship with our environment should be one of respect and empathy.