Abstract
Despite some indicators that suggest increasing resilience in the Sundarbans area, most evidence points to rising natural hazard risks associated with the effects of anthropogenic climate change and increasing exposure due to accelerated development in the area. Development is exposing more people and property to disaster risks while also making the environment in the Sundarbans less resilient to disaster impacts. The relatively disadvantaged background of the Sundarbans residents and shortcomings in public service provision and social safety nets combine to leave them particularly vulnerable to disaster. The Sundarbans has suffered increasingly severe tropical cyclones in recent decades, and these storms have led to huge losses in terms of property damage, injury and loss of life, and significant disruption of life in affected communities; the region has avoided more significant losses due to some fortuitous coincidences (e.g., storms avoiding the largest and destructive storm swells due to the timing of cyclone landfalls with daily tidal flows). The allocation of public investments aimed at improving resilience has, at best, a mixed record and also points to opportunities for improving the area’s resilience in the future. The chapter reviews the factors driving the decline in resilience observed in the Sundarbans based on available data and analyses.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Adnan, M. S. G., Haque, A., & Hall, J. (2019). Have coastal embankments reduced flooding in Bangladesh? Science of the Total Environment, 682, 405–416.
Associated Press. (2009, May 25). 2 killed in India as cyclone Aila approaches. The Daily Star.
Basu, J. (2020). Cyclone Amphan and high tide: A 1 hour gap saved Sundarbans from an even bigger disaster. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/climate-change/cyclone-amphan-and-high-tide-a-1-hour-gap-saved-sundarbans-from-an-even-bigger-disaster-71332.
BBC News. (2019, November 9). Cyclone Bulbul makes landfall amid India and Bangladesh evacuations. Obtained online https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50358663
Boisson, S., Sosai, P., Ray, S., Routray, P., Torondel, B., Schmidt, W. P., Bhanja, B., & Boisson, T. C. (2014). Promoting latrine construction and use in rural villages practicing open defecation: Process evaluation in connection with a randomised controlled trial in Orissa, India. BMC Research Notes, 7(486), 1–12.
Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, Department of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of West Bengal. (2016). Districtwise estimates of yield rate and production of nineteen major crops of West Bengal during 2014–15, Kolkata, 243 p.
Bureau of Applied Economics and Statistics, Government of West Bengal. (2012). District statistical handbook 2009 – South 24-Parganas. Kolkata, 105 p.
CARE-India. (2016). Post-disaster shelter in India: A study of the long-term outcomes of post-disaster shelter projects, 112 p. New Delhi: Care. Available online at https://insights.careinternational.org.uk/media/k2/attachments/Post-Disaster-Shelter-in-Indiafull-report 2016.pdf
Chaturvedi, R. K., Joshi, J., Jayaraman, M., Bala, G., & Ravindranath, N. H. (2012). Multi-model climate change projections for India under representative concentration pathways. Current Science, 7, 791–802.
Choudhury, N. Y., Paul, A., & Paul, B. K. (2004). Impact of coastal embankment on the flash flood in Bangladesh: A case study. Applied Geography, 24, 241–258.
Danda, A. A. (2007). Surviving in the Sundarbans: Threats and Responses. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Twente, Enschede, p. 199.
Das, P., & Das, A. (2017). Environmental vulnerabilities index formulation in fragile ecosystem of the Indian sundarbans. Matter: International Journal of Science and Technology, 3, 36–58. https://doi.org/10.20319/Mijst.2017.31.3658.
Das, P., Banik, P., & Edmonds, C. (forthcoming). Spatio-temporal analysis of spectral indices and field soil sample based salinity estimation in the deltaic ecosystem of Indian sundarbans. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, revised and resubmitted for publication in March 2021.
Debnath, A. (2013). Condition of agricultural productivity of Gosaba C.D. Block, South24 Parganas, West Bengal, India after severe cyclone Aila. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 3(7), 1–4.
Eaton, R. M. (1990). Human settlement and colonization in the Sundarbans, 1200-1750. Agriculture and Human Values, 7, 6–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01530432.
Ghosh, A., Schmidt, S., Fickert, T., & Nusser, M. (2015). The Indian Sundarban mangrove forests: history, utilization, conservation strategies and local perception. Diversity, 7(2), 149–169.
Ghosh, M. K., Kumar, L., & Langat, P. K. (2018). Mapping tidal channel dynamics in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh, between 1974 and 2017, and implications for the sustainability of the Sundarbans mangrove forest. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 190(10), 582.
Giri, C., Pengra, B., Zhu, Z., Singh, A., & Tieszen, L. L. (2007). Monitoring mangrove forest dynamics of the Sundarbans in Bangladesh and India using multi-temporal satellite data from 1973 to 2000. Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, 73(1–2), 91–100.
Harris, I., Osborn, T. J., Jones, P., & Lister, D. (2020). Version 4 of the CRU TS monthly high-resolution gridded multivariate climate dataset. Scientific Data, Scientific Data. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0453-3.
Indian Institutes of Technology. (2011). Trends in agriculture and agricultural practices in Ganga basin part IV: West Bengal. Kanpur: IIT Kanpur, 54 p.
Iqbal, I. (2011). The Bengal delta: Ecology, state and social change, 1840–1943 (p. 268). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jalais, A., & Mukhopadhyay, A. (2020). Of pandemics and storms in the Sundarbans. In C. Dowler (Ed.), Intersecting crises. American Ethnologist Website, 12 (October 2020).
Joint Global Change Research Institute and Battelle Memorial Institute – Pacific Northwest Division. (2009). India: Impact of climate change to 2030: A commissioned research report (p. 54). Report Number NIC 2009-03D. National Intelligence Council (U.S.).
Kaur, P., Kumar, T., Chandrasekar, K., & Bandyopadhyay, S. (2019). Different statistical methods for the discrimination of tropical mangrove species using in-situ hyperspectral data. Journal of Hyperspectral Remote Sensing, 9(2), 49–67.
Kumar, T., & Patnaik, C. (2013). Discrimination of mangrove forests and characterization of adjoining land cover classes using temporal C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar data: A case study of Sundarbans. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation., 23, 119–131.
Kumar, K. R., Sahai, A. K., Kumar, K. K., Patwardhan, S. K., Mishra, P. K., Revadekar, J. V., Kamala, K., & Pant, G. B. (2006). High-resolution climate change scenarios for India for the 21st century. Current Science, 3, 334–345.
Kumar, K. K., Patwardhan, S. K., Kulkarni, A., Kamala, K., Rao, K. K., & Jones, R. (2011). Simulated projections for summer monsoon climate over India by a high-resolution regional climate model (PRECIS). Current Science, 3, 312–326.
Kumar, T., Mandal, A., Dutta, D., Nagaraja, R., & Dadhwal, V. K. (2019). Discrimination and classification of mangrove forests using EO-1 Hyperion data: a case study of Indian Sundarbans. Geocarto International, 34(4), 415–442.
Mandal, M. S. H., & Hosaka, T. (2020). Assessing cyclone disturbances (1988–2016) in the Sundarbans mangrove forests using Landsat and Google Earth Engine. Natural Hazards, 102, 133–150.
Mehtta, M. (2019). A forest of refuge, or a forest of refugees? Field notes on ambivalence and risky work in the Sundarbans of West Bengal. In A. Ghosh (Ed.), The tides of life (pp. 117–127). New Delhi, India: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Ministry of Culture, Government of India).
Mehtta, M. (2020, October 12). A new crisis and an old conversation: Reflections on Quotidian care in the Sundarbans. American Ethnologist – Pandemic Diaries: From the Field. https://americanethnologist.org/features/pandemic-diaries/introduction-intersecting-crises/a-new-crisis-and-an-old-conversation-reflections-on-quotidian-care-in-the-sundarbans.
Mehtta, M., & Bhattacharyya, D. (2021). Shifting lives in the mangroves: Is concrete the way forward in rebuilding the Sunderbans? Opinion: The Telegraph online. https://www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/is-concrete-the-way-forward-in-rebuilding-the-sunderbans/cid/178488
Mondal, B., & Saha, A. K. (2018, June). Spatio-temporal analysis of Mangrove loss in vulnerable Islands of Sundarban world heritage site, India. In The annual international conference on geographic information science (pp. 93–109). Cham: Springer.
Nandi, S., Ghosh, M., Kundu, A., Dutta, D., & Baksi, M. (2016). Shoreline shifting and its prediction using remote sensing and GIS techniques: a case study of Sagar Island, West Bengal (India). Journal of Coastal Conservation, 20(1), 61–80.
National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development. (various years). “Potential linked credit plan” for North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas Districts.
Nishat, B. (2019). Landscape narrative of the Sundarban: Towards collaborative management by Bangladesh and India (p. 132). Washington, DC: World Bank.
Rahman, M. R., & Asaduzzaman, M. (2010). Ecology of sundarban, bangladesh. Journal of Science Foundation, 8(1–2), 35–47.
Rahman, A. F., Dragoni, D., & El-Masri, B. (2011). Response of the Sundarbans coastline to sea level rise and decreased sediment flow: A remote sensing assessment. Remote Sensing of Environment, 115(12), 3121–3128.
Ranjan, A. K., Sivathanu, V., Verma, S. K., Murmu, L., & Kumar, P. B. S. (2017). Spatio-temporal variation in Indian part of Sundarban Delta over the years 1990–2016 using Geospatial Technology. International Journal of Geomatics and Geosciences, 7(3), 275–292.
Rudra, K. (2019). Embankments of Sundarbans: Holding the grains or eating it up? In A. Ghosh (Ed.), The tides of life (pp. 99–103). New Delhi, India: Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (Ministry of Culture, Government of India).
Sachin, C. (2020, January 16). Annual visitor arrivals at Sundarbans rise to 250,000 but drawbacks remain. BDNew.com. Available on the internet at https://bdnews24.com/travelandtourism/2020/01/16/annual-visitor-arrivals-at-sundarbans-rise-to-250000-but-drawbacks-remain
Sanjay, J., Krishnan, R., Ramarao, M. V. S., Mahesh, R., Singh, B., Patel, J., Ingle, S., Bhaskar, P., Revadekar, J. V., Sabin, T. P., & Mujumdar, M. (2017). Future climate change projections over the Indian region. In R. Krishnan & J. Sanjay (Eds.), Climate change over India – An interim report. Pune, India: Centre for Climate Change Research, IITM, 38 p.
Sengupta, S., & Manik, J. A. (2020, August 3). A quarter of Bangladesh is flooded. Millions have lost everything. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/climate/bangladesh-floods.html
World Bank. (2014). Building resilience for sustainable development of the Sundarban: Strategy report (English). Washington, DC: World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/879351468259748207/Building-resilience-for-sustainable-development-of-the-sundarbans-strategy-report.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Edmonds, C., Mehtta, M., Noy, I., Banik, P. (2021). The Climate-(Ir)resilient Society of the Indian Sundarbans. In: Brears, R.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42462-6_95
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-42462-6_95
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-42461-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-42462-6
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Earth and Environmental Sciences