Ghoramara Island

Ghoramara Island (Bengali: ঘোড়ামারা দ্বীপ) is an island 92 km south of Kolkata, India in the Sundarban Delta complex of the Bay of Bengal. The island is small, roughly five square kilometers in area, and is quickly disappearing due to erosion and sea level rise.[1]

Shrinking of island

Global warming has caused the rivers that pour down from the Himalayas and empty into the Bay of Bengal to swell and shift in recent decades, placing these islands, known as the Sundarbans, in danger. Four islands are completely underwater, and another 10 in the area are at risk.[1]

A recent study by Sugata Hazra, an oceanographer at Jadavpur University in nearby Kolkata, found that during the last 30 years, roughly 80 square kilometers, or 31 square miles (80 km2), of the Sundarbans have disappeared. More than 600 families have been displaced, according to the local government authorities. Ghoramara alone has shrunk to under five square kilometers, about half its size in 1969, Hazra's study concluded.

Population

Ghoramara island once had a population of 40,000.[2] The 2001 Government of India census showed a population of 5,000 on Ghoramara; this population is believed to have shrunk as families are displaced by the island's sinking. As of 2016 the island has 3,000 residents.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Disputed isle in Bay of Bengal disappears into sea". USA Today. March 24, 2010.
  2. 1 2 "Rising Tides Force Thousands To Leave Islands Of Eastern India". NPR.org. Retrieved 2016-05-22.

Coordinates: 21°55′N 88°08′E / 21.917°N 88.133°E / 21.917; 88.133

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