At least 10,000 inhabitants have been turned into environmental refugees and another 70,000 are in the danger of meeting the same fate over the next thirty years.
Rising sea levels have forced thousands of families to leave their ancestral houses and lands in the Sunderbans area of West Bengal, and many more are living in the constant fear of losing theirs.
At least 10,000 inhabitants have been turned into environmental refugees and another 70,000 are in the danger of meeting the same fate over the next thirty years, environmental experts say.
After a 10-year study in and around the Bay of Bengal, oceanographers say the sea is rising at the rate of 3.14 mm a year in the Sunderbans against a global average of 2 mm, threatening low-lying areas of India and Bangladesh.
Sugato Hazra, director of the School of Oceanography at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata, who led the team that conducted the study, said an increase in the sea temperature was compounding the problems for the islanders.
"In Sunderbans, the impact (of global warming) is very high because not only is the coastline retreating but we are also losing islands and land; in 30 years we have lost 90 sq km area including two islands. A lot of people have become environmental migrants; high intensity cyclones are increasing in the Bay of Bengal because of the rise in the sea surface temperature," said Hazra.
According to a United Nations climate panel report, human activity was causing global warming and it predicted more droughts, heat-waves and rising seas.
But for the Sunderbans, made up of hundreds of islands, criss-crossed by narrow water channels and home to India's tiger population, the threat is more immediate.
At least 15 islands have been affected, but erosion is widespread in other islands as well, Hazra said.
A combination of drought followed by heavy rainfall this year and increasing soil salinity have made it impossible to grow enough food to survive on traditional agriculture alone.
At least four million people live in the islands spread across 9,630 sq km of mangrove swamps.
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