zReportage.com Story of the Week #754: TUESDAY September 22, 2020: 'SLOWLY SINKING SUNDARBANS' from ZUMA Award Winning Photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee who covers long term projects in South East Asia: The sea is steadily eating into the Sundarbans, the world's largest delta and mangrove forest, threatening an ecological disaster for the Bengal basin region, home to over 235 million people. The roughly 6,000 square mile forest delta stretches across the lower reaches of the Bengal basin, 60% falling in Bangladesh and the rest in the Indian state of West Bengal. Due to climate change the Sundarbans faces several challenges. With rising sea levels, islands are disappearing and the increasing salinity in the water and soil has severely threatened the health of mangrove forests and the quality of soil and crops. Mangroves provide a slew of benefits in addition to storing carbon, reducing flooding and erosion from storms, acting as nurseries for fish, and filtering pollutants from water. Thousands of villages along the coastal habitat are losing their natural defenses against climate change just as it intensifies. The World Bank suggests that by 2050, more than 13 million Bangladeshis including most of those on the margins of the Sundarbans might migrate because of climate related crises. The forecast in West Bengal is similarly alarming. Welcome to: 'SLOWLY SINKING SUNDARBANS'
© zReportage.com Story Summary: zReportage.com Story of the Week #754: TUESDAY September 22, 2020: 'SLOWLY SINKING SUNDARBANS' from ZUMA Award Winning Photographer Supratim Bhattacharjee who covers long term projects in South East Asia: The sea is steadily eating into the Sundarbans, the world's largest delta and mangrove forest, threatening an ecological disaster for the Bengal basin region, home to over 235 million people. The roughly 6,000 square mile forest delta stretches across the lower reaches of the Bengal basin, 60% falling in Bangladesh and the rest in the Indian state of West Bengal. Due to climate change the Sundarbans faces several challenges. With rising sea levels, islands are disappearing and the increasing salinity in the water and soil has severely threatened the health of mangrove forests and the quality of soil and crops. Mangroves provide a slew of benefits in addition to storing carbon, reducing flooding and erosion from storms, acting as nurseries for fish, and filtering pollutants from water. Thousands of villages along the coastal habitat are losing their natural defenses against climate change just as it intensifies. The World Bank suggests that by 2050, more than 13 million Bangladeshis including most of those on the margins of the Sundarbans might migrate because of climate related crises. The forecast in West Bengal is similarly alarming. Welcome to: 'SLOWLY SINKING SUNDARBANS'

An woman and her child stand infront of their house which is affected by sea level rise. The region is suffering water level rise due to deforestation and climate change. As the rise in sea levels increases, the salinity in water degrades soil quality causing reduced crop yield and a food crisis. Drinking water quality is also affected, which brings with it a higher potential for diseases like cholera.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Women wade through deep waters to fish for shrimp in the Sundarban's river inlets despite the constant risk from salt water crocodiles that inhabit the area. The Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal, in both India and Bangladesh. A combination of subsidence and sea level rise means these fragile islands are disappearing quickly.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A young girl from Mousuni Island walks barefoot along the muddy shore with her backpack on the way to school. Using boats on the waters is the main form of transport in the Sundarbans.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Homes on Mousuni Island surrounded by rising waters. Millions of people living in the Sunderbans islands face losing their homes to rising seas caused by climate change. The region was the first in the world to record an unfolding climate refugee crisis as people fled an island lost to the sea.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Inside a simple bamboo shelter with no electricity, students from the Sundarban's region are studying with the help of a youth coaching centre.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Faces aglow from electronic screens, young boys of Gosaba island are seen busy with their mobile phones on the banks of the river. This area was one of the worst affected in the Sunderban islands by Cyclone Amphan.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A young girl from Namkhana Island stands in front of her damaged house which has been inundated with water due to the constant high tides. Rising waters and illicit logging are killing the trees in the Sundarbans, the natural wall that protects the India Bangladesh coastline.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

LALTU 18, lies in bed suffering from high fever while her mother is preparing oral rehydration salts (ORS) on Gosaba island. The World health organization states that rehydration salts can successfully treat different forms of the diarrheal disease, including cholera.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Local residents from Gosaba island walk along the river bank in the evening time lighting their way with kerosine lanterns. Gosaba island is completely cut of from the main power grid and solar energy is beginning to be installed to bring some light to these remote areas.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Women wade through river waters near their homes to catch fish in the flooded inlets of Mousuni island. One of the most at risk islands in the region Mousuni is experiencing increasingly violent storms and coastal erosion which leads to devastating flooding.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A young girl of Ghoramara island peers out from s window in her home. A high percentage of young people leave the area and migrate to cities to seek work, in many cases before fininshing thier schooling.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Her sari flowing in the wind, an Indian woman is standing in the bank of Ganges river. Several islands in the Ganges estuary on the western edge of the Sundarbans region, that a century ago were covered in mangroves have now vanished, leaving the area exposed to the eroding power of the sea.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A fisherman's wife is seen mourning in her home after her husband lost his life due to a tiger attack. In bad years the Tigers of the Sundarbans are responsible for up to 50 human deaths. The number of tigers in the Sunderbans reserve forest in West Bengal has increased to 96 from 88, according to the 2019-20 census by the West Bengal Forest Department.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A woman from Gosaba Island holds a kerosene lamp in one hand and a water jar in the other, as she walks down to the river bank at dusk. Electricity has not reached some of the more remote areas in the Sundarbans.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A young woman is worshiping in the evening with lamp light, outside her home on Satjelia island.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A woman stands on the damaged coastline as the sea water enters Mousuni island. A combination of subsidence, a result of the loss of mangroves, and sea level rise means these fragile islands are disappearing quickly.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Local villagers of Satjelia island watch as two roosters battle during a traditional cock fight. Hundreds of local people show up for these violent events, either to participate in the game or watch the cocks fight to the death. A ban on cock fighting in India has had little effect in these remote regions.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Villagers from Gosaba island in the Sundarbans, use homemade nets to catch shrimp from the river. Shrimping has become a new source of food as many rice paddy fields have been slowly submerged by the rising waters.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Villagers pull ashore a tree trunk recently cut down on Mousuni Island. With litle or no education on the dangers of removing trees, the islanders cut down many trees to collect the wood for cooking fuel. The ''Sundari'' trees are often sold due to the high quality of the wood, for a short term gain with no replanting of the removed trees. Thus, the forest which earlier served as a buffer and protected the landscape now has made the soil susceptible to erosion.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

With only smoke for burning leaves to protect them from bee stings, honey collectors leave their boat and enter the forest to seek bee hives to extract raw honey. Honey collection starts in April and an official license is required from the Forest Department. Bengal tigers often attack the workers without warning during the honey collecting season.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Workers carry bamboo which will be used to reinforce embankments along the shoreline for protection against the encroaching ocean on Mousuni island.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Under a stormy sky local school children return home by boat to Satjelia Island. The migration of youth from the Sunderbans is a result of the aftermath of Aila, as well as the effects of climate change and a poor education system that offers very little chance for well paying jobs after leaving school.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Local workers of Sagar Island hammer wooden posts into the ground to help reinforce the weakened embankments. The people here largely depend on the natural resources of the area for their means of livelihood. As residents cut the trees, the rising seas bring saline waters, and in turn the forest and the land itself are now shrinking. More than a million coastal residents have already migrated north.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Beside his home of red bricks and thatched roof, a fisherman from G-Plot Island in the Bay of Bengal collects water from the delta for household chores and cooking.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A local woman walks along the muddy embankment on Sagar Island on her way to fish for shrimp. As water salinity surges, residents and farmers have abandoned rice farming in favor of shrimping.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A tea shop owner from Namkhana island in the Sundarbans stands beside his abandoned shop which has been inundated by rising flood waters.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

A woman stands in her damaged house in Sagar Island. The World Bank estimates that by 2050, more than 13 million Bangladeshis many on the margins of the Sundarbans, could migrate because of climate related crises. The forecast in West Bengal is similarly alarming.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Holding umbrellas during a rain shower women from Satjelia Island are crossing a river by boat. The main form of transport in the Sundarbans is by boat on the many rivers and estuaries.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

People walk along the coastline as grey looming monsoon clouds hover over Sagar Island in the Sundarbans.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire

Villagers from Mousuni Island collect water for their households from a stand pipe well which is being rapidly submerged by rising waters.
© Supratim Bhattacharjee/ZUMA Wire