Sundarbans: A universe unto itself

In describing the Sundarbans, Amitav Ghosh, an internationally acclaimed writer wrote in his novel, The Hungry Tide: 'A mangrove forest is utterly unlike other woodlands or jungles. There are no towering, vine-looped trees, no ferns, no wildflowers, no chattering monkeys or cockatoos. Mangrove leaves are tough and leathery, the branches gnarled and the foliage often impassively dense. Visibility is short and the air still and fetid. At no moment can human beings have any doubt of the terrain's hostility to their presence, of its cunning and resourcefulness, of its determination to destroy or expel them. Every year, dozens of people perish in the embrace of that dense foliage, killed by tigers, snakes and crocodiles.'

This magnificent paragraph above describes the enchanting Sundarbans (beautiful forests), a truly unique ecosystem in the world which stretches along the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans' surrounding islands are known as 'bhatir desh' or the tide country. The dense and heavy green mangrove forests are inhabited by man-eating Royal Bengal Tigers. Their home is the swamps of the forest where they usually hunt for people.

According to the Department of Forestry, on average, 45 people are killed annually by the tigers in the Sundarbans.

For centuries on, these ferocious and beautiful animals have been a source of great mystery and have increased human curiosity about the relationship between science, mythology and nature.

Authors like Amitav Ghosh and Sy Montgomery had undertaken long and treacherous journeys on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers surrounding the Sundarbans to see and find answers to their own curiosities.

In the early colonial times Sundarbans were referred as 'wasteland.' Since the waterways carry very little freshwater and due to lack of largescale economic opportunities, human habitation in the adjoined islands was sparse. Sundarbans now are inhabited by poor woodcutters, honey gatherers and fishermen.

While researching for this article, I also learned many tidbits regarding Sundarbans' mythical entities like Bon bibi who rules the jungles. She has the status of a deity who is worshiped by the islanders. They especially revere her before entering the jungles and call on her when they are afraid.

Despite the hostile condition for humans, in the last century, the Sundarbans have gone through a stimulating metamorphosis and was known as 'a beautiful and exotic garden.' Beautiful enough, to crown itself as one of UNESCO's 'World Heritage Site.'

Now this natural and biodiverse hot spot Sundarbans Reserved Forest is facing grave danger with the coming of the Rampal coal-fired Power Plant, also known as Maitree Super Thermal Power Project. This project is a joint venture between the Bangladesh power Development Board and India's Natural Power Corporation.

Only Bangladesh got the raw end of the deal. This plant will be built in its acquired 1,834 acres of land on the southwest Bangladesh side. This plant will be only 14 km away from the Sundarbans primary area borders.

Moreover, according to a report, 'Indian power experts would handle the day-to-day operation. It is totally unacceptable. Rather, if Indians really do have this kind of expertise then better we send our engineers, technicians and operators to an Indian coal-fired power plant to get training in their respective subjects.'

Under 1972 Wildlife Protection Act, Indian law prohibits building of any kind of power plants within 15 km of its national parks, reserved forests and natural habitats where keystone species such as tigers, dolphins and crocodiles live.

Indian counterparts have enough sense to realize the coal-powered stations will be a suicide mission for the environment. With the building of the plant on Bangladesh territory; India is killing two birds with one stone or we might say having its cake and eating it too.

Unfortunately, the coal-based power plant will change the entire topography (on the Bangladesh side) by disturbing the sensitive ecology of the largest mangroves that is shared by both Bangladesh and India. It is estimated 66% of forest area is in Bangladesh.

Before delving any further, let me humbly say that I am not an environmental scientist, a chemist nor a marine biologist doing a field study on the Sundarbans. I don't have the expertise to assess the detriment the power plant will have in the immediate future. I only claim to be environmentally conscious, and as a Bangladeshi national, I am in favour of protecting the biodiverse Sundarbans and its adjacent areas.

Based on my reading of many articles and technical reports written by experts, I mostly want to dwell upon in this piece the possible future ramifications on the Sundarbans during construction period of the Rampal Power Plant and when it will be fully operational.

To put it bluntly, this reckless operation in the Sundarbans will be a huge impediment to wildlife conservation and protecting the endangered species.

From my impressions of the Sundarbans, I found out this delicate environment is home to 453 recorded species. Among those 58 are threatened species of mammals, and there are a number of highly endangered species like reptiles to a point of extinction.

The 248 bird species are being threatened as well.

The Passur, Maidara and Agunmukhi rivers are sanctuaries for turtles, fishing cats, shrimp, lobster, crabs and spotted deer. The other endangered animals are Common otter, lizards, marine turtles, 6 species of snakes including the cobra king. Among the aquatic mammals in the river estuaries are Irrawaddy Dolphins who emerge and disperse with the rise of the high tide and its fall.

Such water bodies are also home to a number of other marine animals and freshwater fish. Water from these rivers seep deep into the forest and the industrial pollution surrounding the boundaries of the plant will slowly kill the animals and the fish.

Sundarbans mangroves are a natural habitat for the Royal Bengal Tigers where they are at home.

According to a very recent bdnews24.com opinion piece, 'The preliminary results of the recent tiger census gave us an alarming message – we have only 106 Bengal tigers left in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh. This number is remarkably lower than the previous estimate of 440 from 11 years ago. A recent survey in the Indian part of Sundarbans also yielded an estimate of 74 tigers against its previous estimate of about 270 tigers in the area from 2004.'

Because of illegal poaching and habitat loss Sundarbans' most treasured symbol of our heritage and pride – the Bengal Tiger now is highly endangered. The tigers are often gunned down by poachers for its invaluable skins and bones. Both are in high demands on the black market trade. They are smuggled in China where the bone is used for making traditional Chinese medicine.

According to a CNN report, this past August 9^th, the authorities in Bangladesh had killed six tiger poachers in Sundarbans National Park. When police raided their hideout they died during a shootout. Later 10-foot long three adult tigers' skins were found.

Putting aside the Bengal Tigers, with the building of the coal-run power plant this entire tidal area and the biodiverse jungles will be seriously affected due to dredging, traffic movement and spilling of oil and chemicals. During the construction phase, more than 400 ships will carry 3.2 million tons of cheap coal, other materials and the drilling equipment will be brought to the project site. These will be transported through the Passur River.

Experts warn that transferring coal, via shipping and barging may result in coal spilling, with concomitant coal dust release. Water in the Sundarbans and surrounding areas will be contaminated by 'discharges of ballast & bilge waters, oil leaks, ash and coal spill off the ships.'  It will generate lots of light and noise pollution, impacting wildlife. The dust can be highly toxic, killing fish and other animal life in and around the river.

'Dredging of the riverbed will result in erosion; change the water chemistry with impacts on aquatic biodiversity including freshwater dolphins within the Passur river system.' All marine animals may die slowly, one by one. The coal ash must be stored, and disposed much as radioactive waste in a nuclear power plant. Improper storage may lead to oozing metals including mercury and other arsenic materials. Such harmful substance will seep into ground and surface water, thus polluting the Sundarbans.

Also the recent oil spill in the Sundarbans 'demonstrates the sensitivity of the area and the incapacity of the government to handle such disasters.'

According to another report, someone who is working on building the plant confirmed (unofficially) that there is a plan to make an ash-pond near the riverbed; the green campaigners fear that all marine animals will eventually die.

'Thermal releases of water itself from the coal plant may adversely affect the freshwater ecology.'

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report expressed serious concern by saying: 'If navigational, spillages, noise, speed; lighting, waste disposal rules and regulations are not properly maintained' the biodiversity of these mangroves will have a catastrophic ending.

Also the coal-powered plants are the largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

If we disturb the tranquil forests, by going ahead with the Rampal plant, the Sundarbans won't be able to remove all the toxins like carbon dioxide and other pollutants from the air because the tress will exceed their limit with so much environmentally harmful stuff in the air, not to mention the affect it will have on climate change.

Once built, the power plant will remain operational for at least for 25 years. During that time the impact of the plant on the environment will cause detrimental havoc. As per EIA, toxic sulfur and nitrogen gases will be released. The estimate is: '142 tons of SO2 and 85 tons NO2 will be emitted from the 1320 MW Coal Power Plant' in the Sundarbans' ecologically critical areas.

The movement to stop the Rampal Project had started in 2013, when twenty-thousand people marched from Dhaka to Rampal to protest the building of the plan. But the government paid no attention.

This past June, during Indian Prime Minister Narandra Modi's Dhaka visit the deal was finalized despite signed petition by thousands in favor of keeping the Sundrabans unharmed. Nothing prevailed and now the initial stage of construction has begun amongst vehement protests and hundreds of op-ed pieces.

Then what difference will another column make? Probably none, but worth repeating a hundred times until the government grasps the implication in building this hugely opposed coal-run power plant.

Alternately, if we chose to remain passive, and do not dispute and fight for preservation of our natural habitats and largely endangered species then no measures will be taken even to ensure that basic minimum standards are upheld.

Other than the ethical responsibility – if we don't voice our opinion on building an environmentally harmful power plant, it is a no-brainer that it will slowly ruin our ecosystem. It will not only destroy the natural setting, for us humans, but also for the animals and all other species that live in those areas.

We also can educate ourselves about environmental hazards by going through the risk assessment reports pertaining to Rampal Plant. Learning about how the toxic air pollutants released by the plant will harm our health has been a real eye-opener for me.

The poor islanders in the delta region need protection and it is imperative that others who are in a position must speak up on their behalf because those people are voiceless.

In the book, The Hungry Tide, a headstrong American cytologist (a biologist who studies living organism) named Piya with a small grant from the university, goes to the Indian part of the Sundarbans for a fortnight to study the behavior of a rare species of river dolphin called Orcaella. She only carries a backpack which contains data sheets, camera, binoculars, water and energy bars. She enlists the help of a translator named Kanai and a local crab fisherman named Fokir. Near a place called Garjontola, they all sit on Fokir's fishing boat, as they wait for the sightings.

During high tide the dolphins come in hundreds. Sometimes only a mother/calf pair shows up. Piya watches in amazement how a newborn catches a fish, only to toss it in the air, a typical behavior of these mammals playing with the prey.

Piya soon realizes in order to come to a correct hypothesis – 'that the dolphins had adapted their behavior to suit the ebb and flow of the water' by observing the dolphins' movements; she will need to stay there a whole cycle of tides to collect supportive data. That will require years of field research.

In between waiting for the dolphins Piya and Kanai have a lot of philosophical discussions about the 'connections and interrelations' of different aquatic mammals. During their nature vs nurture debates many unrequited queries tinkle in Piya's head.

Kanai tells Piya once in these islands in the Bay of Bengal people lived in fear of getting eaten alive by the tigers. Every week poor people who went into the forests in search of food and firewood, used to be killed by tigers. It happened so frequently that these killing went unreported because these people were too poor 'to matter.'

Piya and Kanai have a poignant discussion about keeping the earth free of animals where there will be total dominance by the humans (as Fokir and his young son Tutul make chapatti to be eaten with honey, totally oblivious of Piya and Kanai's critical argument). Piya contends with Kanai's logic and reasons other species matter as much.

They also chat about how more tigers in America are living in captivity but not in its natural habitat. Piya, as a cytologist, is in favour of (as her profession calls for it) preserving endangered species in captivity. Piya argues fervently that it is lesser of two evils where there is a possibility of total extinction.

Now getting back to the Rampal power plant – those of you who are familiar with the Equator Principles know that it 'is a risk management framework adopted by 80 financial institutions from around the world for assessing and managing environmental and social risk in project finance.'

Their analysis showed that 'serious deficiencies in project design, planning, implementation and due diligence obligations render the project non-compliant with the minimum social and environmental standards established by the Equator Principles, as well as the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standards.'

As detailed in the full environmental report, the Rampal coal plant fails to comply with Equator Principles.  'This project is not appropriate for investment by Equator Principle Financial Institutions (EPFIs.)' In order to uphold their commitments under the Equator Principles, signatory financial institutions are ceasing their support one by one. The much-hyped Norwegian Pension Fund has already pulled out from the agreement. Since then in June, three French Banks have withdrawn from their earlier promise to fund this project.

Bangladesh Planning Commission hasn't approved this project either.

The procedure of procuring land for the Rampal coal plant has violated every requirement under existing law. 'Land acquisition for the project and site preparation, including land filling, were carried out before the EIA was conducted'. This was a gross violation of the law. National standards were not followed in land acquisition and relocation of the displaced people.

In most countries including the US, coal power plants have been banned because of the harmful impact on the environment. The logical question that comes to mind: how can this be not vitally important to the Bangladesh government as well? Why is it not a priority to safeguard our country's natural beauty and its habitats? Whose responsibility is it to protect our side of the Sundarbans?

Because of the location and history of the Sundarbans, the islanders were not included in the decision making process. This dynamics has changed against them even more so with the power plant proposal. The islanders/residents are fearful that with the building of the power plant, hostility will only increase. They will not get much from this project; their very livelihood will be threatened.

The poor people in the Sundarbans region often blame the conservationists because they perceive protecting the forests and its environments are more important than saving human lives. Due to the upcoming project, a huge number of landless farmers who depend on the land and water bodies for their livelihoods have been displaced without any reimbursement.

The islanders claim the world is becoming a global village where people from faraway places come to relate to the tigers of Sundarbans. They argue as humans their very presence is seen as illegitimate or even unwelcome in what has become a World Heritage Site.

However, it will not remain a 'World Heritage Site' for long though! The establishments of the coal-run Rampal Power Plant in the peripheries of the Sundarbans will immensely imbalance its delicate ecosystem. Now humans will rule this archipelago, instead of the wildlife.

Zeenat Khan is a freelance contributor to bdnews24.com.