Impact of Climate Change on West Bengal

Geographically West Bengal is a diverse state – starting from the hilly mountain of Darjeeling district towards dry western Purulia district ends with littoral South 24 Parganas. A number of domestic and trans-national rivers are draining from north to south and from west to east. Therefore the formation of hydrological cycle is majestic in nature. This majestic geography inevitably develops tropical vegetation to its people. However, this makes a natural garland that binds people with the Mother Nature.

World is already affected due to the effects of global warming. US & Europe faced several climatic hazards during this year and the intensity of destructive nature became more and more aggressive in comparison to the earlier years. The Environmentalists are crying for precaution for years. However, nationalism and economic activities prevails more. Administration all over the World is intentionally not to focus on this serious issue. Report says oceans became 26 percent more acidic from the era of industrial revolution. It also says five years from 2015 is set to be warmest of any recorded period. The inevitable result is already visible. Hydrological cycle changes its natural pattern of rain and snow fall. There is a heavy deluge where rainfall was quite often and the converse also recorded. Several conventional climate models are failed to predict the climatic events.

One of its aspects is upraising the seawater level. The calculations from environmentalists confirmed by the satellite imaging observation prescribed this most aggressive nature. It is easily perceived that the littoral states/ cities all over the World will severely be affected.

One of the natural disasters ‘Aila’ seriously affected the life of South 24 Parganas people. It embedded ‘Salt’ in the soil. Therefore natural vegetation has already affected in this locality. However, it is became a natural issue of landslide into river. Thousands of acres of land lost its identity and people lost their land for agriculture. As a result the amount of cultivable land is shrinking on rapid pace – that indicates the amount of accessible food is also shrinking. On the other hand, it is around more than 700 million population in this World aggressively accessing land promote habitation. Hence the most difficult question comes how the food will be distributed among such a huge people on earth?

After the severe attack of ‘Foni’ and ‘Bulbul’ residents of littoral region became more vulnerable and eager to migrate towards mainland which is less dangerous. Civil society may not accept this big deal however, it is impossible to accommodate a huge mass over a limited land. Therefore the existence of littoral region is at stake. Peeping through the hole, at the point of Administration, there is no explicit rehabilitation policy of littoral resident either in urban area or any other rural area. Even there is no proper clarification about the urban slums.

   

Apart from this a huge contribution need to provide to the wildlife habitats. On this anthropogenic climate crisis wild life is the most vulnerable species and be seriously affected. Expansion of human civilization is an absolute threat to the wildlife. Not only wildlife habitat, but the extreme threat is poachers or the illegal tradesmen of animal products. Another issue is deforestation. Stringent the laws being made, severe the crime executed. As a consequence, wildlife is asymptotically reducing and attained the state of endangered species.

There is always a ray of hope. Let us hope one day people will understand the threat in her own. She will do her best to save life both Man & Wild and create eco-friendly atmosphere for all.