‘How Much Land Can We Keep Giving to The Ocean?’

Cyclone Remal, classified as a “severe cyclonic storm”, caused severe damage across coastal Bangladesh and India. The storm resulted in the loss of at least 38 lives, destruction of thousands of homes, breaching of seawalls, and flooding.

“I could not go anywhere. I stayed on the bed waiting for the storm to pass while the winds intensified and waves became massive,” Mondal recalls. “All the able-bodied people left, but the police or the panchayat officials did not come to check if anyone had stayed behind. I cannot get down these stairs or reach the shelter, as my legs are not functional.”

Mondal’s experience highlights the disproportionate impact of extreme weather events and climate change on people with disabilities. They face significant challenges in seeking safety and accessing suitable accommodations in relief centres, often neglected in disaster preparedness and response efforts.

Mondal, from the coastal community of Amrabati village in Fraserganj next to Bakkhali in the South 24 Parganas district, has lived in the area since 1962 when his family migrated from Midnapore.

The Mondals are one of 16 families living in the rehabilitation colony built by the state government in 2000, about 1 km from the shore. They lost their family home to Cyclone Bulbul in November 2019. A “very severe cyclonic storm” that made landfall on Sagar Island, with sustained winds of 110 to 120 kmph and gusts up to 135 kmph. The high tide washed away everything, including Mondal’s home and all their belongings.

He used to be a fisherman, earning Rs 200-400 per day working on others' fishing boats. With no money or land to rebuild a house, he has been living in the rehabilitation house with his family since 2019.

The condition of these rehabilitation houses is poor, with no electricity or water supply, the plaster from the walls crumbling, exposing the underlying brickwork. "I fell down the stairs of this house in 2021. Since then, I have been disabled and unable to work,” Mondal said. “I just have to lie down."

Being out of work, Mondal cannot afford treatment. He has not even been able to collect the money to travel 36 km to the nearest government hospital in Kakdwip to apply for a disability card.

Saraswati Mondal lives in a one-room house in the rehabilitation colony with her husband and sons after losing their home and all belongings during Cyclone Bulbul in 2019. She walks about 1 km to the beach every day to wash fish for a living, as her husband lost his legs in an accident.

Threat of recurring cyclones and coastal erosion on Bengal coast

The Bay of Bengal is among the most cyclone-prone regions on earth. Jeff Masters, a hurricane scientist and meteorologist, notes that 26 of the 35 deadliest tropical cyclones in world history have occurred in the Bay of Bengal in the past two centuries.

This region experiences about five times as many tropical cyclones as the Arabian Sea, with a higher frequency of storm surges. The combination of high mountain ranges and low-lying coastal plains and river deltas makes the Bay of Bengal extremely susceptible to tropical cyclones.

The frequency of cyclones over the Bay of Bengal has increased, with notable cyclones such as Aila in 2009, Fani and Bulbul in 2019, Amphan in 2020, Yaas in 2021, Sitrang in 2022, Hamoon in 2023 and Remal in 2024. This marks the fifth consecutive year that cyclones have formed in the Bay of Bengal during the pre-monsoon phase in May, which can be linked to global warming and rising ocean temperatures. Cyclones bring strong wind, heavy rainfall, and flooding, resulting in severe beach erosion.

It is not merely the frequency but also the intensity of the cyclones that is intensifying year by year. The maximum wind speed increased from 25.2 kmph in 2009 to 41.6 kmph in 2024. The higher the wind speed, the higher and more destructive the waves it causes. The increasing maximum wind speed of tropical cyclones poses a greater threat to the local communities and ecosystems.

Further, rainfall during the peak rain months of July to September fluctuated, ranging from 242.65 mm in 2010 to double that amount (504.24 mm) in 2016 in the Namkhana-Bakkhali-Frasergunj Island of the Sundarban region.

West Bengal's coastal stretch, situated at the eastern end of the Indian Peninsula and adjacent to Bangladesh, is in the largest deltaic area in the world. The Ganga-Hoogly, Saptamukhi, and Thakuran rivers in the state drain into the Bay of Bengal in the Sundarbans delta complex, spread across the North and South 24 Parganas districts.

“This Ganga-Brahmaputra delta was created with river sediments flowing from the mountains in the north,” said Tuhin Ghosh, director of the Department of Oceanography at Jadavpur University. “But the sediment supply is diminishing due to rivers drying up and being dammed. The Ganga, the major river, has hundreds of interventions that have slowed down its flow, the last being the Farakka Barrage.”

Previously, this excess of sediment influx counteracted and minimised the sea level rise, but with reduced sediment flow, the impact of sea level rise has increased, contributing to coastal erosion. Anthropogenic activities exacerbate the situation. For example, in places like Sagar Island, the coastal dunes were flattened for construction, removing natural barriers that used to obstruct big waves, allowing them to reach inland, explained Ghosh.

According to a 2023 report from the World Meteorological Organization, the sea-level rise in the Bay of Bengal over the past three decades has been 4.44 mm per year. This rate is nearly 30% higher than the global average of 3.4 mm per year.

The report also says that the temperature increase in West Bengal and the adjoining Bihar-Jharkhand region is among the highest in the country, comparable to the rises seen in some northern states.

According to the National Centre for Coastal Research, an office of the Ministry of Earth Sciences, the east coast of India is a high erosion hotspot compared to the west coast. Their latest report on shoreline change analysis shows that 60.5% of West Bengal’s coast is eroding, 14% is stable, and 25% is accreting. Coastal districts like East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas, and North 24 Parganas exhibit significant erosion, with only a few pockets of accretion and stable conditions.

The 30-km long stretch of four islands of the Sundarban (Sagar, Moushuni, Bakkhali-Fraserganj and G-Plot) are extremely vulnerable and frequently damaged by cyclonic surges. A research paper titled ‘Changing Scenario in Bakkhali and Fraserganj Coastal Area’ highlights that the shorelines of Bakkhali and Frasergunj in South 24 Parganas are under constant threat from ocean encroachment and cyclones.

Loss of home, livelihood, and commons

Fishing communities are the major stakeholders on the coast and also the ones who face the brunt of erosion which threatens their homes and livelihoods. They also lose their communal spaces for activities like drying nets, washing and drying fish, and parking boats, points out Nirmalya Choudhury, a professor at the Centre for Disaster Management, Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Sriram Gayen, 55, earns his livelihood by fishing on others' trawlers. He told IndiaSpend that increasing extreme weather events have reduced fishing days, affecting their earnings, exacerbating the effects of inflation and rising fuel prices.

Gayen had to move to the rehabilitation colony with his elder brother and sister-in-law after losing their home in front of Lakshmipur beach during Cyclone Yaas in 2021. Most people from his neighbourhood had to move to the rehabilitation colony, or to safer places if they had land elsewhere, or relatives’ houses.

Rehabilitation houses in Fraserganj, built by the West Bengal government in 2000, are poorly constructed, lacking electricity and water supply, with plaster crumbling from the walls.

Gayen’s sister-in-law Kalpana Rani, 62, told IndiaSpend, "We have lost three houses to cyclones and storms. We keep building them back, but they never stay."

Housing construction costs are high, and keeping homes liveable in this disaster-prone coastal zone requires constant investment. The region has faced a number of tropical cyclones and storm surges recently, forcing residents into a cycle of continual repairs.

For displaced communities, abandoning homes built at substantial cost is difficult due to concerns about location and livelihood. "We want to come back to our own home if our electricity line is restored and when they finish building the embankment,” said Gayen. “We are used to staying close to the ocean; our work and life are there. We are not scared of floods."

Arati Bhuiya, 60, who lives near Kalisthan Sea Beach in Bijaybati, shares similar concerns. Her tea shop was destroyed during Cyclone Yaas three years ago. "I had to rebuild it on the other side of the road. If it gets destroyed again, I won’t be able to reconstruct it."

“The ocean was very far away; there were huge sand dunes. Now it keeps breaking and moving forward. How much land can we keep giving to the ocean?" she added.

Bhuiya lives with her two sons, their wives, and children. Her sons also work on other people's fishing trawlers. She has one bigha of land (0.33 acres), but attempts to grow vegetables have failed due to inland salinity and rising temperatures.

“There have been about six to seven cyclones in the last 12 years, causing severe saline invasion. The land is not fit for agriculture," noted Amites Mukhopadhyay, a sociologist at Jadavpur University who specialises in the Sundarbans region.

Arati Bhuiya lives near Kalisthan Sea Beach in Bijaybati. Her tea shop was destroyed during Cyclone Yaas three years ago.

Effective mitigation measures against coastal erosion

Gayen and other residents of Lakshmipur are optimistic about the 800-metre concrete embankment under construction by the Irrigation & Waterways Department of the West Bengal government. They believe the embankment, facing the Bay of Bengal, will protect their houses from cyclones and storm surges.

However, the construction has disrupted local livelihoods. "We cannot go fishing since the construction of the embankment started last December. The contract runs until 2026, and we will only be able to resume fishing after the construction is completed," said Gayen.

Last week, high tides caused floods and water-logging in the coastal areas of South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, which led to the breaching of new and old concrete and earthen embankments--including the embankment under construction in front of Gayen’s house. The high tide crossed over the embankment and flooded his house on the Lakshmipur Beach.

Shantanu Singha Thakur, Panchayat Secretary of Namkhana Block Development Office, told IndiaSpend that the irrigation department is working to cover the under-construction embankment with plastic cement bags to protect it from the waves and water. “We have written to the irrigation department to start coastal protection work after the monsoon. Currently, their priority is to stop the water,” he said.

The project has also faced delays due to Cyclone Remal, which shows the challenges of constructing hard structures in such vulnerable areas.

Choudhury noted that while seawalls and other structural interventions have been the state’s only mitigation measure, their effectiveness in reducing erosion is mixed. "Constructing embankments on rivers or coasts might be useful if properly managed and maintained. Otherwise, they can also pose risks," he explained.

Mukhopadhyay highlighted two major issues with embankments. Firstly, river currents can erode the structure over time, weakening it from the bottom and leading to breaches or major fissures and cracks. Secondly, the region's frequent cyclones and storms often cause the embankments to break down.

An 800-metre concrete embankment under construction along Lakshmipur Beach in Fraserganj to control coastal erosion. While seawalls have been the state's primary mitigation measure, their effectiveness in reducing erosion is mixed.

In May 2022, the National Green Tribunal issued a directive prohibiting all states and Union Territories from building or raising hard structures for erosion control.

In February 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change warned against building sea walls to protect from sea level rise and storm surges, as IndiaSpend reported in June 2023. Seawalls, it said, are supposed to help people cope with sea level rise but can wind up having unintended consequences, like protecting just a small area or harming natural barriers like coral reefs. Seawalls are also known to transfer erosion to other parts of the coast.

“Just by putting bunds or embankments you cannot fend off the sea, because the sea will intrude from someplace else,” Deepak Apte, marine ecologist, conservationist and former director of the Bombay Natural History Society had told IndiaSpend. “So you will only shift the problem from one place to another.”

Ghosh proposed a more sustainable solution: building low-cost embankments and maintaining them with native vegetation. "The concrete embankment’s weight might be too much for the Sundarbans’ sub-surface. We need a proper scientific study before implementing these projects," Ghosh urged.

A July 2021 expert committee report from the West Bengal Environment Department said, “To date we relied more on civil engineering measures to repair damaged/breached embankments but present (sic) expert committee proposes to harmonise civil engineering with vegetative solutions.” This approach may ensure better safety of embankments, the committee noted, but creating a proper vegetative wall may take more than a decade. “[T]ill then we have no other alternative but to adopt the civil engineering measures to protect the embankments.”

Consecutive cyclones over Bay of Bengal have destroyed the mangrove cover along the coast at Kargil Sea Beach in Fraserganj, which previously slowed water flows and helped in sediment deposits to reduce coastal erosion.

Choudhury also stressed the importance of non-structural measures, suggesting that the state disaster management department expand its strategies.

Last year, the Union government announced that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has drafted a national policy for the mitigation and rehabilitation of people affected by river and coastal erosion.

This policy, outlined in the 15th Finance Commission’s report, allocates funds for both structural solutions, such as the construction of seawalls and embankments, and non-structural solutions including the rehabilitation of displaced people and the provision of livelihood opportunities.

We have contacted the NDMA regarding the status of the implementation of this policy and will update this report upon receiving a response.

“There is a huge amount of displacement from the region, and the displaced people cannot avail the Geetanjali housing scheme by the state government because they are losing their land,” said Ghosh. “If they cannot acquire new land, they cannot benefit from the scheme. These policy gaps need to be addressed.”

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