Skip to main content

Sunderbans needs flow of sweet water for its survival: study

As climate change continues to impact socio-economic life of people in the Sunderbans, researchers have called for ensuring supply of fresh sweet water to the island along with other adaptation strategies for saving the mangrove tress, people and the unique biodiversity of the region.

 A study “The Sunderbans, impact of climate change on people’s livelihood: options for adaptation” — the result of a joint effort School of Oceanography Studies, Jadavpur  University  and Caritas India, a non government organisation —   released on Saturday suggests “ linking of canals to areas outside Sunderbans to ensure  inflow of sweet water  in the  interior connected  regions.”  Experts, who were present at the release of the study, also stressed on the need of providing vocational training to the youth in Sunderbans that would help them sustain as climate change will eventually impact traditional livelihoods like farming and fishing.
Speaking at the launch of the report, Professor Sugata Hazra said that unless “we are able to save rivers and ensure fresh water supply to the areas of Sunderbans, it is difficult to save the people and the ecosystem from the effects of climate changes.”
  The key research outcomes of the report included a recommendation on diversion of water of river Hooghly through lock gates at Kulpi and  Karanjali to benefit five or six blocks.
6 blocks “vulnerable”
  One of the key findings of the report is that six of 19 blocks in the Sunderbans archipelago “are highly vulnerable from the perspective of fresh water availability” and that blocks with limited access to fresh water have lower percentage of agricultural land under second crop.
  On the necessary adaptation in agriculture the reports recommends “crop diversification,” establishing soil-testing facilities at block level and advice to farmers on ecosystem specific crop selection.  The study also presents case-studies of farmers from the Sunderbans having adopted the integrated land and water resource model in the wake of challenges related to monoculture and crop failure.   Participating in the discussion over the launch of the study, West Bengal Minister for Sunderbans Affairs Manturam Pakhira expressed concern that experts were warning that a portion of Sunderbans would go under water in the next few years.   An estimation of composite vulnerability of the islands of Sunderbans points out that Mousani and Ghoramara islands are highly vulnerable to climate change, the report states.
  • One recommendation is diversion of the Hooghly to benefit 5 or 6 blocks in Sunderbans
  • Experts are warning that a portion of Sunderbans will go under water in the next few years
    • Labels:

    Comments

    Post a Comment

    Popular posts from this blog

    NGT terminates chairmen of pollution control boards in 10 states (downtoearth,)

    Cracking the whip on 10 State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) for ad-hoc appointments, the National Green Tribunal has ordered the termination of Chairpersons of these regulatory authorities. The concerned states are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Manipur. The order was given last week by the principal bench of the NGT, chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The recent order of June 8, 2017, comes as a follow-up to an NGT judgment given in August 2016. In that judgment, the NGT had issued directions on appointments of Chairmen and Member Secretaries of the SPCBs, emphasising on crucial roles they have in pollution control and abatement. It then specified required qualifications as well as tenure of the authorities. States were required to act on the orders within three months and frame Rules for appointment [See Box: Highlights of the NGT judgment of 2016 on criteria for SPCB chairperson appointment]. Having ...
    Post a Comment
    Click Here To Read more »

    High dose of Vitamin C and B3 can kill colon cancer cells: study (downtoearth)

    In a first, a team of researchers has found that high doses of Vitamin C and niacin or Vitamin B3 can kill cancer stem cells. A study published in Cell Biology International showed the opposing effects of low and high dose of vitamin C and vitamin B3 on colon cancer stem cells. Led by Bipasha Bose and Sudheer Shenoy, the team found that while low doses (5-25 micromolar) of Vitamin C and B3 proliferate colon cancer stem cells, high doses (100 to 1,000 micromolar) killed cancer stem cells. Such high doses of vitamins can only be achieved through intravenous injections in colon cancer patients. The third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer can be prevented by an intake of dietary fibre and lifestyle changes. While the next step of the researchers is to delineate the mechanisms involved in such opposing effects, they also hope to establish a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C and B3 for colon cancer stem cell therapy. “If the therapeutic dose gets validated under in vivo...
    1 comment
    Click Here To Read more »

    What's ailing Namami Gange programme?(DTE)

    Winters are extremely hectic for Sushma Patel, a vegetable grower in Uttar Pradesh’s Chunar town. Her farm is in the fertile plains of Ganga where people grow three crops a year. But this is the only season when she can grow vegetables. And before that, she needs to manually dig out shreds of plastic and wrappers from her one-hectare (ha) farm. “This is all because of the nullah,” she says, pointing at an open drain that runs through her field, carrying sewage from the neighbourhood to the Ganga. “Every monsoon, the drain overflows and inundates the field with a thick, black sludge and plastic debris. We cannot even go near the field as the stench of sewage fills the air,” she says. But Patel has no one to complain to as this is the way of life for most people in this ancient town. About 70 per cent of the people in Chunar depend on toilets that have on-site sanitation, such as septic tanks and pits. In the absence of a proper disposal or management system, people simply dump the faec...
    2 comments
    Click Here To Read more »