KOLKATA: Deforestation and engineered embankments to protect the Sunderbans are giving rise to conflict between nature and man and making the region vulnerable to climate extremes and flooding, said geographer Kalyan Rudra who specializes in river and water management.He went on to say that to prevent the shrinking of the islands in one of the largest mangroves forest in the world, which is also a Unesco World Heritage Site and now a Ramsar Site, there should be minimum intervention with the rivers and deforestation should be stopped. He was speaking at Oxford Bookstore as a part of the month-long India Heritage Walk Festival presented by Sahapedia, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and The Makers Collaborative.“The islands are shrinking. Over the centuries, the contours of several islands have changed drastically. The river which had changed its course once is trying to realign which is giving rise to a social conflict,” said Rudra, who is also the chairman of the West Bengal Pollution Control Board and a member of the Central Pollution Control Board.Almost three years ago, satellite analysis by the Indian Space Research Organisation had revealed that in the last ten years, 3.7% of the mangrove forests in the Sunderbans have disappeared, along with 9,990 hectares of landmass, due to erosion. It is happening due to the rise in sea level, triggered by climate change Ghoramara island has shrunk by almost half in the past few decades.“The sea level is rising with every passing year which is eating into the islands,” said Rudra. Sunderbans has 102 islands out of which only 54 are inhabited.

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