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15 images that show how climate change has affected this slowly vanishing islandhttps://www.businessinsider.in/15-images-that-show-how-climate-change-has-affected-this-slowly-vanishing-island/made-up-of-54-separate-islands-the-sundarbans-are-one-of-the-worlds-largest-collection-of-river-delta-islands-they-are-located-off-the-coast-of-southern-bangladesh-and-eastern-india-/slidelist/51933877.cms2021-07-26T12:48:07+05:30

15 images that show how climate change has affected this slowly vanishing island

Jul 26, 2021, 12:48 IST

Made up of 54 separate islands, the Sundarbans are one of the world's largest collection of river delta islands. They are located off the coast of southern Bangladesh and eastern India.

Ghoramara Island is in the delta area of the Sundarbans, which meets the Indian Ocean.

The warmer weather has caused glaciers to melt, which increased the sea level and made the river flow faster, causing it to slowly break down the island.

For this series, I simply focused on two facts — [the] disappearing island and its inhabitants," Lee told Business Insider. "I found some symbolic landscape that explained the situation of the island and [I photographed] the inhabitants on this land to show their home is disappearing.

About four million people live on the Indian side of the Sundarbans.

The exact population of Ghoramara Island, as well as how many people have left, is unclear because there are no actual government records.

But it's believed that since 1969, Ghoramara has shrunk down to half its former size.

Today, it barely covers three miles.

Ghoramara used to be only two miles away from Kakdwip, located on the mainland, but now it's five miles away.

Over the past 20 years, two other islands that were once by Ghoramara have washed away completely.

People who have been forced to leave the island because it is washing away are going to Sagar Island — about six miles south of Ghoramara — which has also shrunk about two miles in the past nine years.

Most of the people who remain on Ghoramara Island are farmers and fisherman.

"It still has old, traditional farming culture," Lee said.

The mud dams the residents have built around the islands over the years are too fragile to keep away the rising sea level. They are so fragile that one storm could potentially destroy a lifetime's labor on the land.

When Lee was visiting, a civil servant he met told him the island is expected to be completely washed away within 25 years.

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