Rising Waters-Migrating People

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First a confession. I have read about climate change. I know what causes global warming. But as Al Gore reminds us -it's an inconvenient truth, which we all want to ignore. That's until I visited the Sunderbans- where the waters are rising so fast that it's eating up islands at a much faster rate. That's when it hit me- Climate change is no longer the future. The future is here- before our eyes.

Our first images of Sunderbans- everyone seems to be on the move. And everyone is trying to move inwards from the water. Except the water keeps surging forward. There are bamboo fences, there are red bricks, and there are mud embankments. But nothing seems to meet the appetite of the hungry tide. It goes on engulfing and encircling the land on all sides. Sea levels are predicted to rise so rapidly due to climate change that in the next 30 years 70% of the Sunderbans will be submerged.

We meet Bishwanath Tarafdar- a fisherman who can no longer use his right hand because of nerve damage. He's torn the ligament of his right hand while fighting a tiger. Experts believe that with the submergence of islands in the southern side of Sunderbans, species like the barking deer and the tiger are moving northwards. On an average tigers kill a 100 people every year. With tigers migrating to the northern side- there's an additional worry -will human-tiger conflict also increase?

We then visit another part of Bali Island. It's a race against time. The only activity that people seem engaged in is related to the tides coming in and washing away another chunk of their land. I meet Sourabh Sardar - at what used to be his residence- an old frail man peering out of the window of his mud hut. His wife, their 7 children are just watching the river take yet another piece of land away. To ask them if this is due to climate change would be like asking a fisherman here if he likes the shopping mall culture or not. Climate change seems like an unreal word. In fact there seems to be no translation of it either in hindi or Bengali. All that he knows is that the frequency with which the embankments are getting destroyed is more often. In the last year the river has destroyed the embankment on which their house is built twice. He's a Santhal tribal- Other than this piece of land for their homestead they have nothing

I am shivering by now. It's raining and we are standing in the open doing the interview. As we board our boat back to the island on which we are staying there's a lot to think of on the ride back home. You have to walk through the mud islands of Sunderbans to understand just how slippery the land is. It's like walking on ice. We are actually walking on clay. Just when you think it's a piece of cake to walk on the slithering mud, you've been had. Much to the delight of an entire village that watched me slip-slide away, I fell on my haunches. And with mud splattered all over my backside all the village kids were soon shouting and screaming with joy. I was clearly the joker for the day. And with a people engaged with just the business of fighting their terrain all the time, a little bit of comic relief from city bumpkins like me must be very welcome!

On a nearby island- we meet- Suryakant Moundal. I keep convincing myself that there must be many other geological reasons why the river is flooding their homes more frequently. But evidence from local people is corroborated by what climate change scientists have been saying for years. The weather has become unpredictable- so have the rains. Earlier the fishermen could gauge in advance when the river would flood- now it's so erratic that any predictions are impossible. . My shoes, trousers are all caked in mud by now. I don't mind- I just wish I could run across the quicksand like our helper Babu. He just runs pitter-patter across the mud as I drag one foot out of the knee-deep mud. Suryakant Moundal shows us his abandoned toilet, a destroyed wall- that the water came and swallowed. He's holding his head in his hand. How does one translate the word climate change in Bengali? And how do I discuss with this man about carbon emissions?

We finally reach our last destination- Sagar Island. It's the point where the Ganga meets the sea- hundreds of pilgrims gather every year to wash their sins. As the sun sets we are all engaged in a massive tree planting exercise- over 8000 mangroves are being planted by local people to stop the river from coming in and washing away their homes. The problems of Sunderbans may seem local- their causes we all know are global. Till how long will we all deny this inconvenient truth?