Introductory

Climate change has emerged as a gigantic concern worldwide especially in developing/underdeveloped countries as it undermines the environmental sustainability and economic growth of the nations. Proactive measures like inclusive planning, resilience and adaptation based developmental policies becomes crucial for mitigation of climate change related challenges. Being the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest, recognized as the Ramsar site, the Indian Sundarbans accommodates the poorest and the most vulnerable communities who experience sea level rise, vagaries of weather, severe cyclones and higher storm/tidal surges. This leads to enormous flooding of the deltaic low-lying areas and salinity intrusion apart from deterioration of the coastal environment, biodiversity, livelihood and economy. Hence, smart resilience and adaptation strategies are a prerequisite for vulnerable communities to cope with climate change in the future. This chapter is an endeavour to provide a precise note of the theme of the study, vivid literature review for the identification of appropriate research gaps, formulation of the objectives and framing of suitable methodology to magnify the significance of the research work.