History of the Sundarbans
The present tidal delta Sundarbans was originally occupied by vast stretches of grassland filled with saline marshes and tropical wetlands containing one of the worlds' largest stretches of biodiversity-rich forests, The archeological evidence of human civilization dates to around 400-300 BC. Post 1200 AD, the history of the Sundarbans is one of continuous conversion of forest tracts to wet-rice cultivation under the influence of pioneers professing an Islamic Sufi identity. The process of bringing virgin forest under cultivation continued unabated in the Mogul era (1575 – 1765).
When river Ganges changed course from the original Hugli channel to combine upstream with the Brahmaputra, most parts of the 24 Parganas Sundarbans faced increased salinity and this gradually affected the flora and fauna of the area. The era also witnessed devastating cyclones, like the one in 1584, which is reported to have claimed about 2,000,000 living creatures.
The British East India Company set up their headquarters at Calcutta in 1757 at the edge of the Sundarbans. The forests at that time stretched uninterrupted for 19,200 square kms and retained much of their splendor and diversity.
In 1928 the British Government assumed proprietary rights to the forest and, in 1830, began leasing out tracts of the forests for reclamation ~ a process which continued until 1875-76.
By 1873 nearly 5,100 square kms of forests had been converted into agricultural land and the Sundarbans area forest cover had been effectively reduced to about 14,100 square kms. In 1875-1876 the government declared un-leased forest reserved, and placed them under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department– a move which created today's Sundarbans forest.
A variety of wildlife survived till the latter part of the 19th century despite the rapid depletion of habitat. Hunter records: "Tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, wild buffaloes, wild hogs, wild cats, barasinga, spotted deer, hog deer, barking deer, and monkeys are the principal varieties of wild animals found in Sundarban" in 1875. But the events of the next few decades led to the near complete destruction of the grasslands and rainforests, which coupled with the increase in salinity spelt the death knell for the rhinoceros, leopard, wild buffalo, swamp deer and hog deer Only the tiger, wild pig and spotted deer survived the mass species extinction
From the early of the 20th century, the Sundarban forests were managed using Curtis's working plan which focused on scientific harvesting. This plan was in effect when partition divided the administration of the Sundarbans between Bangladesh) and India. Both countries continued to protect the area after independence.
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The Indian forests in the 24 Parganas by then had been seriously denuded by years of felling and the lack of adequate fresh water. In 1963 and 1973 Sundarbans were allowed to clear reserve forests for agriculture and settle in areas like Jharkhali and Herobhanga islands when refugees from Bangladesh came to India .
In 1973, management of a large portion of the Indian Sundarbans was passed on to Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, which was established in 1973 under "Project Tiger. In 1977, it declared Sundarbans a Wildlife Sanctuary and elevated parts of it to the status of a National Park on 4th May 1984. UNESCO inscribed the Indian Sundarbans on the World Heritage List in 1987 and the entire Indian Sundarbans area was recognized by UNESCO as a Global Biosphere Reserve in 2001.
Human settlements
Human settlements in Sunderbans are believed to have started at least 400 years ago, and the area was mapped as early as in 1764 after the British gained control of the delta from Mughal emperor Alamgir II. “Of the 102 islands that went to modern-day India, the British cleared and settled 54 by erecting mud embankments.
The islands of Sunderbans at present do not have any access to grid connectivity and solely depend on solar, biomass and renewable energy sources. Solar power has emerged as the primary source of electrification in most of the inhabited islands in Sunderbans. Cyclone Aila which hit West Bengal on May 25, 2009 has devastated the entire solar panel set-up in the Sunderbans island, leaving the island completely bereft of electricity.
Vanishing Sunderbans delta
Rapid deterioration in mangrove health is causing as much as 200 metres of the vegetation-rich coast to disappear annually in the Sunderbans, according to zoologists. Thriving human development, rising global temperatures, degradation of natural protection from tidal waves and cyclones is inevitably leading to species loss in this richly biodiverse part of the world, according to a Zoological Society of London (ZSL) statement.
Sediment load: Tiasa Adhya focuses on one of the world’s largest river deltas, the Sunderbans, which gets a sediment load of 1.67 bn tonnes a year from the Ganga, the Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers, and is yet eroding. The sediment stickiness is controlled in part by the amount and type of vegetation surrounding the river. Sunderbans delta is a tide-dominated, cohesive delta. It has had no appreciable growth of new land along its coast during the last three centuries
Eroding the land: “Delta-building is impeded by the action of destructive waves continuously eroding the land,” explained Kalyan Rudra, member of the National Flood Disaster Management core group. “Increasing sea-level rise would drown deltas if the rate of sediment deposition on the delta is less than the rate of sea-level rise,” explained Goutam Ghosh, director of Geological Survey of India in Kolkata. The waters in the Sunderban delta are fast changing in quality. The western waters are fresher, lighter and less saline while the eastern sector is saltier and less transparent. Both are warmer—a sure consequence of climate change.
Solid waste disposal: Salinity decreased in the western sector but increased in the eastern Sunderbans during the last 30 years. The western rivers Hooghly and Muriganga dump waste discharges from the two biggest cities—Haldia and Kolkata—into the Western sector, but they also get replenished by glacial meltwater from the Himalayas. Hence the western sector remains fresh. The eastern end is not that lucky. Solid waste disposal and heavy siltation from the surrounding cities cut the eastern rivers off from the Himalayan water sources. The pH has decreased overall but stands higher at 8.25-8.33 than the global figure of 8.179 says Sharmila Kher, Down to Earth Features.
Fallout of global warming: A part of the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans may be lost in future due to the rising water levels in the Bay of Bengal as a fallout of global warming, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee cautioned on June 5, 2010.
"Areas in the Sundarbans like Basanti and Gosaba in our state have been affected by the rise in the water level of the Bay of Bengal due to global warming. The same fate awaits a part of Bangladesh," Bhattacharjee said at a function organised by the state Pollution Control Board on the occasion ofWorld Environment Day 2010 "If this continues, a part of the Sundarbans may be lost. This danger is knocking at the door," he said.
Sundarbans delta is now facing a fresh threat from large-scale construction of concrete embankments all over the islands, environmentalists has warned. Doubting the feasibility of these embankments as coastal erosion is constantly reshaping the islands, WWF's Anurag Danda said on December 26, 2012 the engineering intervention will prove detrimental to the survival of unique flora and fauna of the UNESCO World Heritage site.
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World's largest delta fast disappearing into sea
The world's largest delta, Ganga- Bhagirathi, is slowly disappearing into the sea, finds a study by river expert Kalyan Rudra. The study launched on August 19, 2012 by union urban development minister Sougata Roy in Kolkata reveals that the Indian ocean may soon lose the distinction of being home to the world's largest delta, the Ganges delta.
The research titled "Atlas of Changing River Courses in West Bengal", a project of the Sea Explorers' Institute, was funded by the Union and the Bengal governments. The project was started by Rudra and his team in November 2009 and was completed in March, this year.
"The delta is being swallowed by the sea at an alarming rate both from its apex and the base," said Rudra. Of the 36 delta regions in the world, the Ganga delta which empties into the Bay of Bengal is the biggest one. The Ganga-Bhagirathi delta spans 57,000 square km - known to be the largest delta in the world. While the sea is encroaching inland, swallowing islands in the Sundarbans and adjoining areas at the bottom of delta, the apex is also shifting southwards.
Sundarbans Dolphin sanctuaries
The Bangladesh government has declared three areas of the canals in the Sundarbans, covering 32 kilometres, as "dolphin sanctuaries". Around 12 km from Ghagmari check-post of Chandpai Range to Karamjal check-post through Dhangmari canal and Pashur River, 15 km from Jongra check-post to Andharmari check-post through Mrigamari check-post and five km from Dudhkhali check-post to Supati canal through Bemara canal have been declared as safe havens for the valued species. Fishing in the 32-km waterway has been prohibited with a provision of sentence and fine in violation of the ban. An offender will have to serve in jail for six months to five years and pay penalty for violation of the rules. Meanwhile, plying of large vessels carrying goods such as oil and other forms of cargo through the sanctuaries still poses a threat to the endangered cetaceans. |
How to get Sunderbans
Sunderban is only accessible by waterways. Nearest railhead is Port Canning from where organized group trips start. there are several other entry points but Port Canning is most popular.The other route is through Basanti which is connected by bus service to Kolkata. From here one can take boats to Sajnekhali. One can also come via Port Canning and Gosaba or from Sonakhali to Sajnekhali. For Bhagabatpur, Namkhana is an access point.
By Air: Dum Dum (166kms), is the nearest airport at Kolkata.
By rail: The nearest railhead is at Canning, 48 kms away. The nearest town is Gosaba, 50 kms away.
Sundarbans is accessible only by riverine waterways. From Kolkata there are suburban train to Canning and buses to Namkhana, Raidighi, Sonakhali and Najat from where Motor launch services are available for Sundarbans.
Road: Above mentioned embarkation points from Kolkata are: Namkhana (105 km), Sonakhali (100 km), Raidighi (76 km), Canning (64 km), Najat (92 km).
The best season to visit the Sunderbans is between October to March. Rainfall is quite heavy during monsoon, which last from mid-June to mid-September. After the monsoons, fair weather prevails until mid-March. Contects and accomodations
For Sunderbans you can contact the following centers
Kolkata: West Bengal Tourism Dev. Corpn. Ltd. (A Government of West Bengal Undertaking)1, Kiran Sankar Roy Rd. Kolkata - 700 001 Tourism Centre 3/2, B.B.D. Bagh East, Kolkata – 700 001,India .(033)248-5917/5168/8271/72/73, 210-3201/3199 Fax : (033) 248 5168 Chennai: West Bengal Information Bureau 18, Wallajah Road, Chennai, India.(044) 2841 1046 New Delhi: West Bengal Information Bureau State Emporia Building,1st Floor, Baba Kharak Singh Marg, New Delhi – 110 001,India.(011) 2374 2840 Siliguri: Tourist OfficeHill Cart Road, Siliguri, West Bengal, India.(0353) 251 1974/1979 Darjeeling: West Bengal Tourism 1, Nehru Road, Darjeeling – 734 101,West Bengal, India.(0354) 2254-050/102 Tourist Information Centre (Cooch Behar) Zillla Parishad Atithi Niwas. Kachari More, Suniti Rd Cooch Behar 03582-231527 Permission for river cruise : A general river cruise requires no approval. But to visit places outside the core area permission should be taken from the authorities. Noxious fumes in Sunderbans environment
The study, conducted by Jadavpur University (JU) in collaboration with National Physical Laboratory, reveals alarmingly high levels of particulate matter at Kaikhali island, in the heart of the Sunderbans. With a concentration of 86 microgram per cubic metre, it is higher than that of believe it or not Chennai (58) and Vadodara (66), two bustling cities. "The particulate matter gets deposited on the leaves of the mangrove trees. This deposition prevents photosynthesis of plants, leading to their gradual death," said Prof Niladri Chakraborty of Jadavpur University, the principal investigator of the study. "As a result," he said, "a large number of trees are dying out. Our finding is that the mangroves are yet to adapt to the dense concentration of particulate matter. The impact of particulate matter must be worse on animals and living organisms. Since we never measure its impact on wildlife, we cannot comment on it. But we also found that a large number of Sunderbans residents suffer from lung diseases."
The revelation is alarming. Not only does the Sunderbans have a rich and unique biodiversity, its mangrove ecosystem also helps to protect Kolkata its closest metropolis from the direct impact of tropical cyclones and storms that originate in the Bay of Bengal. The extent of pollution and resultant concentration of particulate matter may well spell doom for the Sunderbans. A thousand species of flora and fauna will become extinct from this ecologically sensitive zone, warn experts.
The study was carried out from 2003 to 2006 by Indranil Mukherjee of Hooghly Engineering and Technology College, A Deb Sarkar of Jadavpur University and T K Mondal of National Physical Laboratory, along with Niladri Chakraborty. The University Grants Commission (UGC) and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Institute (CSIRI) funded the study.
The Sunderbans, with such a high concentration of particulate matter, is extremely vulnerable, said Chakrabarty. "Kaikhali is one of the 54 islands of the Sunderbans with human settlement, only 100 km from Kolkata. The site lies at the convergence of the river Nabipukur with the river Matla, finally merging with the Bay of Bengal. Since the area is open, with no obstruction, land and sea breezes freely disperse the air pollutants," said Prof Chakraborty. But why has pollution reached such levels here? Experts said that in absence of electricity and cooking energy sources, a huge amount of bio-mass is burnt rampantly in the area. This result in emission of particulate matter. During the period of study, there was a huge amount of dust in the area due to a lot of road construction activity. This dust significantly contributed to particulate pollution. Also, the emission from bhatbhatis (diesel-driven country boats) ferrying passengers is greatly contributing to particulate pollution, revealed the study. Chakraborty, however, felt that there should also be a complementary study on the impact of particulate matter on the region's wildlife.
Rs 200 crore grant for the Sunderbans
Jairam Ramesh, Union minister of state for environment and forests has announced a Rs 200 crore grant for the Sunderbans as part of the World Bank’s Integrated Coastal Zone Management Project on January 13, 2010 during his maiden visit to the world’s largest mangrove biosphere reserve. This money will be utilised in the next five years starting June 30, 2010. Ramesh also plans to set up a Sunderbans Eco-system Task Force to look into climate and environmental issues of the ‘critically vulnerable coastal area’. The minister also announced Rs 2 crore for rainwater harvesting in villages around the core area. There are nearly two lakh people living in the buffer zone.
Ramesh will also set up an Indo-Bangla Sunderbans Eco-system Forum, the first meeting of which will be convened in March. “Nearly 60% of the Sunderbans falls in Bangladesh. Our neighbouring country is very keen to work with India for protection and conservation. Google Map |
Royal Bengal Tiger
Fast disappearing mangrove forests of the Sunderbans pose a question mark over the future of the Royal Bengal Tiger, an endangered species, say scientists.
The Sunderbans is a critical tiger habitat; one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers. To lose the Sunderbans would be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals.
A fresh survey has found that the largest habitat of the Royal Bengal Tiger has a population between 64 and 90. The 2004 census had claimed that the tiger population in Indian Sundarban was around 274 and the figure dropped to an estimated 70 in the 2010 census, prompting experts to cast doubts on its accuracy as they claimed that scientific methods were not used for the head count.
The figure was put at 90-odd by certain agencies involved in the census in the world's largest mangrove forest six months ago but the new survey puts the tiger population between 64-90.
"Population estimation of the Sundarbans tigers was done with a combination of camera trapping and satellite telemetry. The total population for Indian Sundarbans was estimated to be between 64 to 90 tigers," says the latest Environment Ministry document. According to the new document, a tiger density of 4.3 tigers per 100 sq km has been estimated at the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and its surrounding areas.
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