Mangrove buffer zone to help fight storms

A mass movement with 80% voluntary participation to create a mangrove buffer zone against recurring cyclones that are a harsh reality of the Indian Sundarbans is successfully underway, according to a Mongabay-India (MI) report.

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As the MI report points out, the area experiences five to six cyclones annually.Over the last 40 years, the Bay of Bengal region has experienced 255 cyclonic storms ranging from low to severe categories. Cyclone intensity has increased over the last 100 years. Between 2019 and 2020, three cyclones impacted the Sundarbans, leading to hundreds of casualties and billions in economic damage. The most severe in recent history, Cyclone Amphan in May 2020, reportedly the first category five cyclone to affect the Sundarbans in two decades, had a major impact on India and Bangladesh with a loss of 128 lives and more than $13 million in damage.

So, when an opportunity to create a buffer against cyclones was presented to them, hundreds of women joined forces to set restoration efforts in motion. Determined women of Tridibnagar secured two kilometres of mud embankment while conserving 40 acres of pre-existing mangroves. Tridibnagar is in Jharkhali, a mid-estuarine island in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district. Jharkhali is one of the entry points to the Sundarbans, a biodiversity hotspot considered one of the most climate-vulnerable regions in the country.