World Bank has rescue plan for Sunderbans
Warnings by experts that large tracts of the Sunderbans are being submerged by rising sea levels have been finally heard with the World Bank coming up with a mega-project to preserve the world’s largest estuarine sanctuary.
Sunderbans formed by the confluence of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghana rivers is both a national park and a tiger reserve, which in the last there decades has lost not only 31-square-miles of land but has also lost several important species of flora and fauna. More than 600 families have also relocated following the submergence of land.
Realising the importance of this 10,000 sq km of forest, the World Bank, the Planning Commission and the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) are jointly preparing a plan to conserve its rich biodiversity and also give a boost to its socio-economic development. Sunderbans affairs minister Shyamal Mondal pointed out that the project, to be prepared by an international agency, will chalk out concrete steps to both save the heritage site and strengthen the livelihood alternatives for the local population. Its report will be submitted by the year-end.
The Sunderbans is also home to the Royal Bengal tigers. According to the latest tiger statistics prepared by the MoEF, the tiger population had increased in three of the five key tiger habitats across the country. In Sunderbans, the MoEF believes, population has gone up even though tracking tigers in this region is difficult. Local politicians claim assistance to this ecologically sensitive area from both the Centre and state has been sporadic and selective and not taken into account the ecological sensitivity of the region.
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