Today, when one travels through the Sundrabans region by boat during high tide and looks towards the inhabited islands, one can only see the roofs of houses. The islands are at a lower height than the boat (as if they were in a bowl with the embankments or bunds holding back the river). The himalayan rivers, which carry soft sediments, previously deposited the sediments on the islands causing them, over time, to increase in height or to shift base. Once these islands were surrounded by man made bunds, this deposition of silt shifted to the river beds, increasing the height of river beds making it more dangerous to settle on active islands. The embankments or bandhs (see Bandh) are the lifeline of the southern-most inhabited islands of the Sundarbans. However, when they are breached, salt water enters the islands; this is called nona bonya or “salty flooding” and is extremely harmful for the ecosystem of the islands as the crops start rotting and the fish in (fresh-water) ponds all perish. When it rains, since it is fresh water (which is needed in the islands), the islanders don’t complain. With heavy rain, their ponds get filled and their rice fields get fresh water. Hence, this fresh water flood is called akash bonya or “sky flooding” and is considered a blessing.
We as city dwellers are scared of floods in general, but in the Sundarbans, the inhabitants are not scared of akash bonya, since this water is going to stay for a couple of days but will eventually seep in and recharge the groundwater table with necessary fresh water. However, nona bonya destroys the soil, the crops, the fish. Due to cyclone Aila, 710 km of embankments were lost because of which a lot of islands became infertile for almost 6 years as nona bonya destroyed an entire layer of soil. 3 years after Aila, we noticed that people were farming paddy which was dying after reaching a height of 6-7 inches because the roots were rotting due to the infertile salty layers of soil. This resulted in a lot of migration and displacement.
Akash Bonya, Ghoramara Island
Ⓒ Koushik Chatterjee