Saktipada Bhuinya looks out over the ocean that surrounds Sagar Island. The Indian part of the Sundarbans, the vast mangrove forest in the Bay of Bengal, consists of 102 islands, about half of them inhabited.
That may not be the case for much longer. The villagers have raised a tall barrier of mud and rocks, and farther out to sea the West Bengal state government has erected a white concrete structure to prevent the vigorous erosion. But these measures haven’t stopped the approaching water from carving away large chunks of land, year after year. Saktipada tells Mongabay that the sea level often rises above the barrier at high tide, the water rushing over his floors.
I’ll give the house another year, he says. After that, Saktipada and his family of six will have to move to a higher part of this mostly flat island, where they’ll stay under tarpaulin tents with other climate refugees.
We have no money to buy new land. We’re poor people, Saktipada says.
He’s not alone. Tens of thousands have already lost their homes in the Sundarbans. Each year it becomes harder for the 160,000 people living in Sagar Island’s 43 villages to resist the rising water. Cyclones and storms, which regularly pass through the Bay of Bengal, have become more frequent.
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