On moonless nights, the dark waters of the Ganges River which flows into the Bay of Bengal at Sagar Deep, literally meaning Sea Island, swells so high that residents of this remote island don’t venture near the banks. “Of course during high tide on days and nights of the full moon and new moon the water levels are always high and that is a natural phenomenon,” points out Dibos Mondal, a schoolteacher who lives on Sagar Island. “But over the past decades, because of climate change, sea levels are steadily rising, causing erosion of the land and the banks of the rivers that surround this island are becoming more and more brittle by the day and chipping off into the sea.”
For the West Bengal government, Sagar Island is a priority development area. For centuries Sagar Island has been the site of the “Ganga Sagar Mela” the second largest religious festival in the country after the Kumbh Mela. At the confluence of the Ganges and the Bay of Bengal is situated the Kapil Muni Ashram, where the sage Kapil Deb, is said to have meditated for years and where pilgrims throng to every year in January to take “holy dips” in the sacred waters. According to locals the original Kapil Muni temple has submerged into the rising sea and had to be reconstructed and moved inland at least twice in the last two decades. Sagar Island is situated in the western side of the Indian Sunderbans. Sunderbans, the world’s largest delta falls partly into India (one-thirds) and partly into neighbouring Bangladesh (two-thirds).
In an interview to The Statesman, West Bengal Sunderbans Development Minister, Bankim Chandra Hazra said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been keen to check the erosion of Sagar and other islands in the region. “She has initiated projects for the protection of the land and prevention of erosion of the banks such as plantation of forests and creation of embankments.” He pointed out that Sagar is not only an attraction for tourists and pilgrims, it is part of a world heritage site.
Interestingly, residents of Sagar Island, which is the largest island in the vicinity, boast a high rate of literacy. “In 2011, the literacy rate was 84.21 percent and today it is between 92 and 93 percent,” Dibos Mondal said. As schoolteacher he attributes this to the fact that compared to the other islands, there is a great deal of exchange of cultures and ideas because of the visits from people from all over the world.
Today, October 6, Hazra inaugurated a three-day “Bengal Literacy” event at Sagar Island.