Climate's Trafficking Connect

Disasters and poverty fuel human trafficking. Increase in extreme weather events makes millions more vulnerable to this trap. TARAN DEOL and SHUCHITA JHA travel to the frequently battered parts of West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra to capture this often ignored aspect of climate change

- Taran Deol And Shuchita Jha

West Bengal's Sundarbans region has seen five severe cyclones over the last decade that destroyed homes and livelihoods. Young girls desperate to escape the devastation and hunger are the primary targets of traffickers

It has been a stormy life for cousins Tisha and Salima. Growing up in the Sundarbans delta in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district, they remember cyclones as major milestones in their lives. Still in their teens, they have endured five severe cyclones in over a decade—one every other year. Each time a cyclone has hit their villages in the Sundarban police district subdivision, it has pushed them into a downward spiral of poverty. Trying to break the cycle has often ended in nightmare scenarios.

South 24 Parganas is not only affected by the maximum number of cyclones in the country and is highly vulnerable to climate change impacts, according to the India Meteorological Department, it is also one of the country's poorest districts—37.2 per cent of the population here lives below the poverty line, shows data with the state government. As extreme weather events keep aiding and abetting poverty, their impacts on people's lives are devastating.