Rising sea levels have submerged two islands in the Sunderbans, where tigers roam through mangrove forests in the Ganges River delta, and a dozen more islands are under threat, scientists say.
A six-year study of the impact of future climate change on the world natural heritage site that India shares with Bangladesh came up with alarming results.
Official records list 102 islands on the Indian side of the vast Sunderbans, where the Ganges and Brahmaputra empty into the Bay of Bengal.
PHOTO: AFP
But scientists have been able to map only 100 islands and found the other two have been swallowed up, said Sugata Hazra, director of Calcutta's School of Oceanography Studies at Jadavpur University.
Fifty-two of the islands are inhabited with a population of more than 1.8 million people.
"Two islands, Suparibhanga and Lohacharra, which have gone under water could not be sighted in satellite imagery. The [disappearance of the] two islands have rendered over 10,000 people homeless," Hazra said.
"A dozen others on the western end of the inner estuary delta are threatened," he said at his office on the university campus. "As the islands sink, nearly 100,000 people will have to be evacuated from the islands in the next decade."
He blames global warming and the depletion of mangrove areas for the rising sea levels in the world's biggest delta.
The Sunderbans -- or beautiful forest in Bengali -- covers nearly 6,000km2.
The islands, separated by a complex network of hundreds of tidal rivers and creeks, form an important buffer shielding millions from cyclonic storms and tidal waves in the Bay of Bengal.
The report by the oceanography scientists has recently been sent to the federal government as part of India's input for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Changes.
"The study shows several changes in physical, biological and social components and the temperature of the group of islands has risen by over one degree centigrade" since 1965, Hazra said.
The annual number of cyclones has fallen, but they are more intense now due to global warming and this means more coastal flooding, erosion and more saline water moving in on the islands, he added.
While rainfall has risen only marginally over the years, most of the rain no longer falls during the traditional monsoon periods.
"Rainfall has shifted to the post-monsoon period, and this shifting is a definite indicator of climate change," he said.
The study shows that the temperature in this area is expected to rise by one degree centigrade by 2050.
Hazra says the relative mean sea level in the Bay of Bengal is rising at a rate of 3.14mm a year because of global warming.
"And if this trend continues, the rising sea will devour nearly 15 percent of the islands in the Sunderbans," he added.
Sunderbans Biosphere Reserve director Atanu Raha, who also studied satellite images of the last 20 years, agreed two of the islands have sunk and a dozen more are under threat of submergence.
"Things like a rise in temperature, in sea level is a highly alarming trend and it needs more study to tackle the situation," he said.
To add to the fears, a study published earlier this month in the journal Science found that global warming may lift sea levels faster than previously expected.
The study by Stefan Rahm-storf, professor of ocean physics at Potsdam University, said rising temperatures could boost sea levels by as much as 1.4m by 2100 -- almost twice the rate previously forecast.
Climatologists so far agree that sea levels will increase by 9cm to 88cm over 1990 levels by the end of the century.
But Rahmstorf suggests that the range could be much higher -- 50cm to 140cm.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS