The Fate of Our Sundarbans: A World Heritage Site Struggling to Stay Away!

A World Heritage Site (WHS) is a landmark or area of ​​"amazing beauty" or "importance to humanity." 

Sunderbans is a heritage site! The 2,200 km long mangrove coastline is crossed by a complex network of tidal waterways, muddy plains, and mangrove islands in the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Megna deltas in Bengal. It is home to diverse fauna, including 260 species of birds, Indian otters, spotted deer, and even endangered species such as estuarine crocodiles, Indian pythons, and the world-famous Bengal tiger and Ganges dolphin.

Currently struggling to survive and remain resilient in severe existence challenges due to climate change and various external factors! Inundation of lowland deltas, receding shorelines, salinization and acidification of soils, and changes in water masses raise serious concerns for the well-being of local communities and the various species that thrive in these deltas.

Climate change is now identified as a significant threat, affecting one-third of all World Heritage sites, according to IUCN World Heritage Perspectives 2020. 3. 

About 54 of the 104 islands in India's Sundarbans region are home to a human population of around 4.5 million. Four islands have been lost to the effects of climate change over the last 25 years - Bedford, Lohachara, Kabasgadi, and Suparibhanga. Lohachara is known as the world's first inhabited island to disappear.

Sagar, a delta island of 200,000 people in the Bay of Bengal, serves as a leading climate change hotspot for climate researchers to study the impacts of climate change on India and the surrounding region. The region also serves as one of Hinduism's holiest places of worship, attracting more than half a million pilgrims every year.