Kolkata, April 2 (). West Bengal has a short coastline as compared to other states. It stretches for just 210 km in East Midnapore and South 24 Parganas districts, but the state faces maximum coastal erosion problem due to climate.
The issue is cited by Dr. Anjal Prakash, director of research at the Bharti Institute of Public Policy, Indian School of Business, and one of the authors of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Based on their observations and analysis of the findings of the same report, they feel that this issue of coastal erosion could have significant implications for communities living along the coast and, therefore, affect the infrastructure and economy of the region. Is.
In fact, the apprehensions about coastal erosion in West Bengal were first brought to light in a report by the National Center for Coastal Research (NCCR), under the Union Ministry of Earth Sciences. It claimed that West Bengal has recorded the maximum coastal erosion among all coastal Indians. Among states between 1990 and 2016, West Bengal reported 63 per cent erosion, followed by Puducherry at 57 per cent, Kerala at 45 per cent and Tamil Nadu at 41 per cent.
During the same period, 99 sq km of land was lost. Whereas during the same period only 16 sq km of land has been added.
Based on the observations highlighted in the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, Joyshree Roy, head of the Energy Economic Program of the Asian Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the same report, feels that the climate-related hazards and consequent loss and damage in coastal areas It is likely to increase further with each additional warming.
Experts are also of the opinion that those who are primarily responsible for this coastal crisis in West Bengal are less affected than those who contribute to it. According to them, natural factors such as sea level rise and storms hitting these coastal areas, along with many man-made factors, are often leading to such coastal erosion.
Arbitrary real estate development (tourism-related construction), flouting all norms, has been a major contributing factor adding to the scourge of coastal erosion.
A recent judgment by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) observed that large scale and indiscriminate tourism related real estate activities in the coastal areas of West Bengal are causing disturbance to the natural ecological environment. The NGT had ordered the immediate demolition of a private resort. In Dulki village under Gosaba, one of the main delta islands in the Sundarbans region in South 24 Parganas.
While passing that order, the NGT observed that the said resort, built in a critically vulnerable coastal zone, was built in violation of the norms laid down under the Coastal Regulation Zone Notification in this regard.
Environmental activists like S.M. Ghosh feels that this Dulki incident is not an isolated case and such violations are rampant all over the coastal areas of West Bengal, especially in places that attract tourists.
According to experts, the coastal regions of West Bengal, especially the Sunderbans region, have always been facing existential crisis due to multiple climatic factors. Furthermore, they feel that these man-made factors are increasingly raising the alarm of a serious crisis. According to experts, the need of the hour is not only to avoid these man-made adverse factors but also to adopt scientific mitigation options to reduce the hazard rate.
However, recently there has been a ray of hope in the Sundarbans region, where a unique initiative by an NGO involving local women of the region has launched a mission for systematic and large-scale mangrove afforestation in the region. Is.
The Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS) started a mission in 2007, involving only 160 women from these villages, in about 50 hectares spread over three small local villages of Dulki-Sonagaon, Amlamethi and Mathurakhand. The success of this systematic mangrove afforestation could be felt for the first time in 2009, when Cyclone Aila touched down in the Sundarbans and moved into Bangladesh. While the rest of the Sundarbans were severely affected by it.
Gradually, over 18,000 local women and about 4,600 hectares of land were largely brought under mangrove forests spread across 183 villages in 14 community development blocks in the Sundarbans regions.
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