Nodi-bandh is a common term used for the earthen or cement and brick walls erected around islands called bunds or embankments in the southern and active islands of the Bengal Delta to protect them from inundation during high tide. The Sundarban delta, also called the atharo bhatir desh (land of the 18 tides), is prone to brackishwater flooding. The bund (bandh) was introduced to the region as part of the colonial power’s land reclamation and cultivation process. During the East India Company’s rule, bandhs were constructed along rivers to prevent salt water from entering islands during high tide, thus rendering the land fit for cultivation.
However, these bandhs were often purposefully breached, especially in the islands furthest from the sea, during monsoon to increase fresh water and silt deposition in the Islands (Dewan, 2021). More recently, bandhs have been surreptitiously breached by people owning fisheries to convert paddy land to fisheries. In the 1970s, some zamindars used to cause breaches so that the refugees who had settled on their lands would be wiped off. During the period of the British Raj, temporary bandhs in the north were replaced with water resistant ones, and in the south entire new bundhs were built across islands which perhaps should have best been left forested with mangroves (such as Salt Lake in Kolkata). It is interesting to note that the Adivasis have played a significant role in the building and maintenance of bandhs. They were the ones who initially were involved in the land reclamation process and construction of bandhs because of which there is a local perception of the contemporary Adivasis being descendents of savage, “tiger-chasers” (Mukhopadhyay, 2013, pp. 7) Due to their historical association with bandh construction, they have also been recruited as beldars, post the abolition of the zamindari system, for maintaining embankments (Mukhopadhyay, 2013).
I happened to come across one really kind elderly man along a newly constructed concrete bandh in one of the southern-most islands of the delta, Mousuni. He recalled the disastrous cyclone Aila of 2009, when the sea had reached up to the bandh. The concrete embankment is quite young, perhaps 2-3 years old. I learnt that this vast stretch of concrete is also a site for drying shutki mach (a kind of dried fish). One can find a lock gate in the rear end to drain out excess water, on the other end along the beach one can see an array of boulders laid along the entire length of the embankment. These have been laid to absorb the shock of the sea waves and reduce their intensity. From where we stood, one can also spot the remnants of the previous embankment and lock gates peaking from under the water. In the north, despite their supposed utility in flood protection, permanent embankments have emerged as the main culprits of river siltation and monsoon water-logging on islands (Dewan, 2021). However in the southern islands which are closer to the coast, the bandhs are of significant importance due to their protection against the ingress of episodic salt water tidal floods. Wondering about the ecological impact of the concrete, I asked my collaborator:
“So the concrete embankment is good?”
“Yes, it’s more resilient.”
I found myself at the other end of the Island where bandhs are in the process of construction. However, these are not concrete ones, they are made of mud. Later, my collaborator pointed towards the concrete and stone debris lying at the edge where the waves collapsed. He recalled that these were all tourist camps, now reduced to dust due to the forces of the rising water level and cyclonic activity in the Bay of Bengal. We were in Baliara village and I was made aware that Baliara comes from the word Bali or Sand. This place had huge piles of sand by its coast, but the sea has taken it all in. People work in the construction process during bhata or low tide, and when joaar or high tide commences, a portion of its progress is taken away by the sea and they have to rebuild again. We could hear a distant machine noise, “that must be the JCB!” We could see a JCB backhoe loader crossing the beach. In West Bengal, the irrigation department is in charge of erecting and maintaining the bandhs. Post collapse, new bandhs are created behind the previous one and this is done through new land acquisition. The decisions on the amount of land to be acquired and the planning of the bunds are all left at the judgement of engineers (Mukhopadhyay, 2016). At present newer efforts of enhancing the protection of the bandhs are coming into practice. One of them would be the use of terracotta rings, forming grids along the bandh to trap sediments. Surprisingly, this has positively resulted in the growth of mangroves within the traps (Krishnan & Tandon, 2025).
On my way back, while sitting along the edge of the bhotbhoti (motor powered wooden boat), crossing the Chinai river that separates Mousuni Island, I could only think of what the elderly man on the concrete embankment had told me.
“We fight with the water everyday…..but the salty air and water keeps me healthy…we are happy here.”
Boulders along the coast
Concrete Embankment
Mud Bund
Double Bund Ⓒ Annu Jalais
References:
- Mukhopadhyay, A. (2013). Haunting Tiger, Hugging Ancestors: Constructions of Adivasi Personhood in the Sundarbans. Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
- Mukhopadhyay, A. (2016). Living with Disasters: Communities and Development in the Indian Sundarbans. Cambridge University Press.
- Dewan, C. (2021). Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh (K. Sivaramakrishnan, Ed.). University of Washington Press.