Union of concerned students

As a result of changing climates, the Indian Sunderbans have been depleting alarmingly over the past few decades. Shiv Sahay Singh of The Hindu writes on July 1,  2017, "...a publication by the School of Oceanographic Studies, Jadavpur University, reveals that from 1986 to 2012, 124.418 sq. km. mangrove forest cover has been lost."

 

The reason that climate change has such a drastic impact on these mangrove ecosystems is that Mangrove forests require stable sea levels for long-term survival. They are therefore extremely sensitive to current rising sea levels caused by global warming and climate change. 

 

But specifically in the Sundarbans Mangrove in Bangladesh, India, the loss in the mangrove forest in the Indian Sunderbans is about 5.5 %. If surface temperatures continue to increase as a result of the pileup of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the sea level will rise drastically, and this ecosystem could see survival threatening results. Singh continues in noting the words of authors Sugata Hazra and Kaberi Samata- “The continuation of climate change and sea level rise poses a serious threat to the carbon sequestration potential and other ecosystem services of this mangrove forest in future."