Save Sunderbans plea in Centre court

KOLKATA: State environment minister Sailen Sarkar has asked Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh to highlight the plight of the Sunderbans after it was lashed by Aila at the Copenhagen climate summit to extract a political commitment on adaptation costs from developed countries. For Sunderbans, that would translate to rehabilitation of people displaced and compensation for monetary losses.
In a recent letter set to Ramesh, Sarkar said the Sunderbans, which was home to 4.5 million people, had been ravaged by extreme climate conditions in the recent past."Cyclones have wreaked havoc on the people of these islands. Though these islanders are among those with the least carbon footprint in the world, they are most the most vulnerable to global warming and climate change. The Aila that lashed the islands washed away 400 km of embankments and forced 400,000 people to flee. Rising sea level has already consumed two islands. For these people, climate change is not a subject to debate but a reality and the world needs to know about them," the state minister wrote.
WWF-Sunderbans coordinator Anurag Danda agreed with the minister's plea, pointing out that it was vital for India to remind developed countries of the adaptation fund that they had committed to developing nations but done little thereafter. "It is the poorest of the poor, like people living in the Sunderbans, who have to make the biggest transition. How can India manage the huge number of climate refugees if the developed countries don't help out," he questioned.
Criticizing the Indian negotiating team for disowning people who live in islands like the Sunderbans, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshwadeep, he pointed out that though India had 700 islands, Maldives with a population less than the Sunderbans attracted more attention on a global stage. "Please take the voice and pangs of the people of the Sunderbans to the global stage," he said.
Climate leader and Vidyasagar University department of economics reader Indrila Guha, who studied the inundation of islands along with Jadavpur University global change programme researcher Rajarshi Banerji, discovered that though people lost their livelihood, agriculture production and homes but hardly been compensated.
Jadavpur University school of oceanographic studies head Sugata Hazra drove home the point. "For people of the Sunderbans, adaptation is critical for survival. For even if we don't produce any carbon for the next 100 years, temperature and sea level will continue to rise, inundating the islands and forcing them to migrate."