Ghoramara island has been shrinking: living on the frontline of global heating

By Dilip -

Sunil Kandar, Ghoramara Island, India: I live in the Hatkhola locality of Ghoramara. I remember how on this island, during my childhood, I had a very happy and enjoyable life. We had a big mud-walled house. We also had large farmland of our own where rice and other vegetables grew. We sold a big part of our farm produce in the market. Like some other families in the island we were pretty rich. The farmland owned by our family was our biggest strength.

Our island is located at the mouth of a river coming from the north. The northern edge of the island began sinking bit by bit under the river water when I was a child. Then, 20 or 25 years ago, the sea began eating away land around the southern edge of the island where we lived. Ghoramara began going underwater almost from all sides and the island began shrinking fast. Farmlands and houses of the people are constantly going underwater.

Cyclones are pounding our island more frequently in recent years. The fragile island is too feeble to keep away the tidal waves. Often during natural disasters, tidal waves cause flooding of the island with salty seawater. Whatever farmlands are left on the island are turning unusable because of inundation by seawater and increasing salinity of the soil…

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/nov/01/the-island-has-been-shrinking-living-on-the-frontline-of-global-heating


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