Climate Change Vis-a-Vis Mangrove Forest Management in Sunderban:Vulnerability ahead from Socio-Political and Biological Perspective

Abstract

The eastern coast of India hosts some of the major mangrove forest of the world including the Sundarban mangrove forests in the delta of the Ganga-Brahmaputra￾Meghna (GBM), the largest single block mangrove forests of the world, fostering one of the "biodiversity rich hotspots" of the world. This largest mangrove forest of Sudarbans delta with 3.5 percent of the world's mangroves covering within an area of 6017 sq km, recognized internationally as the UNESCO World-Heritage site. However, due to increased irrigation for agriculture, industrial activity and the diversion of Ganges water at Farakka Barrage (India) in early 1975, both siltation and salinity have increased in the Sundarban giving an ever-increasing threat for the Sundarban ecosystems. Sundarban, the only tiger-land of the globe is presently under threat for relative sea level rise. Frequent embankment failures, submergence and flooding, beach erosion and siltation at jetties and navigational channels, cyclone and storm surges are the reasons behind. In addition, alarming growth of population in this ecologically sensitive and fragile niche has posed a major threat for its very existence. Wide scale reclamation, deforestation and unsustainable resource exploitation practices are doubling the changes in the physical and socio-biological dynamics of the coastal system.