Critical Coastal Issue: Sagar Island

Critical Coastal Issue: Sagar Island

Off the east coast of India there lies the island of Sagar Island, which is known for one of the biggest deltas in the Sundarbans group. Sagar Island is known for its sacred Hindu culture and attracts many tourists and pilgrimages (Encyclopædia Britannica ). Lack of proper attention from Government, has resulted in severe economic setback to the local community. Basic infrastructural facilities such as roadways, electricity, water supply and sanitation systems are being ignored. The absence of healthcare facilities, educational facilities have taken a heavy toll on the overall development on the entire zone, despite the fact that this region has a strong potential of growth and improvement from cultural, social and economic point of view. Farming and fishing are the main occupations of the inhabitants (Reeves). This delta is located around the world's largest mangrove forest which connects India and Bangladesh. What is happening on Sagar Island is an issue that the villagers are experiencing drastically and quickly and could impact their lives forever. Sagar Island faces problems of weakening environmental quality, loss of critical habitats, tropical cyclones, daily tidal fluxes, shoreline and ecosystem degradation, but most of all erosion.

Whether Sagar Island is facing these problems due to natural or anthropogenic occurrences, immediate action to these causes needs to be addressed. Climate change is one of the greatest challenges people face living in an area like that. These extreme weather events are being felt, destroying lives, homes and farmland. As the sea warms, the high winds and extreme weather events become more disastrous. There are records of severe cyclones from Bay of Bengal crossing the Sagar Island concluding with surges causing damages to properties and inundating vast areas with saline water (Reeves). The wet season in Sagar Island lasts from late June to early October. Rainfall varies from 6 to 348 mm/month and average temperature ranges from 12o to 36o Celsius Sagar Island is home to over 160,000 inhabitants (Gopinath). In May 2009, the cyclone Aila hit the Sundarbans delta on the Bangladesh and India border hard, breaking defense walls, flooding farmland and diminishing homes. More than 22,000 families lost their homes and belongings and hundreds died. Following the cyclone huge parts of agricultural land has turned in to wasteland, destroyed by the ocean water. Aila had formed by warm air and water vapor over the Indian Ocean in the Bay of Bengal (Sharma). Change in weather patterns is connected to rising water and air temperatures. Weather events and rainfall changes may have a bigger impact on populations and ecosystems than actual change in temperature. As the sea temperature rising, the bigger more powerful the storms become.

As being an inland coast, Sagar Island possesses different environmental aspects and biodiversity of life than the inland. The shore meets the water's edge and as much as people admire beaches and coastal areas, they face danger of intense erosion. Not only are people an influence to beaches and to Sagar Island, but different activities, non-anthropogenic, are disastrous. Sagar Island is at a very low elevation. Because of the low elevation the cyclones are very disastrous to the area (Sharma). Flooding and erosion are prevalent causing more problems in the end. The island is made up and composed of mudflats, salt marshes, mangroves, and beaches which are also in critical condition (Gopinath).

One of the main degradations that Sagar Island faces is coastal erosion. The island's beaches and shoreline are eroding at a rapid rate. Erosion