At this point, it is important to study the resilience of coastal communities to the mounting impacts of climate change like rising sea levels and severe weather. As is most evident in the Sundarbans case, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the complex correlation between human vulnerability and environmental change in these regions can be simply explained by the intricate connexion between the environment and human vulnerability in these regions. Even though it is often highlighted in the literature that these communities are vulnerable, there is very little knowledge about the daily, highly engrained cultural practises that allow them to cope and cultivate resilience. The ordinariness of culture has been overlooked as the basis of adaptive strength in most studies in favour of the large scale interventions of the government or non-governmental organisations. The indigenous residents of the Gosaba Block of Sundarban who bear the brunt of the impacts of the climate change are grossly confronted with the environmental concerns that cut across the socio-economic and cultural lines as discussed in this chapter. Raymond (Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society. Oxford University Press, 1985) says that resilience is embedded in the mundane of the culture and is shown in daily lives of the residents of the Gosaba and their methods of adaptation. The particular environmental conditions the Gosaba Block has to deal with, i.e. sea level rise, erosion, salinity intrusion, extreme weather events are discussed and established in the paper. Through elaborate ethnographical studies, we determine the issues that need further research to understand the resilience complexities in the Sundarbans. This paper will fill this gap by exploring the special challenges facing this Gosaba Block in the Sundarbans through an in-depth ethnography approach. In addition to simple measures of resilience, we analyse how resilience can be observed in the daily practises of the community and in the adaptive strategies used by the community. The outcomes of our work are going to indicate the specific spheres that need further research and provide the policymakers with ground-based information that is informative.

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Resilience Amidst Adversity: Navigating Environmental Shifts in the Gosaba Block of the Sundarbans

  • Lina Bose,
  • Shayantani Banerjee

摘要

At this point, it is important to study the resilience of coastal communities to the mounting impacts of climate change like rising sea levels and severe weather. As is most evident in the Sundarbans case, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the complex correlation between human vulnerability and environmental change in these regions can be simply explained by the intricate connexion between the environment and human vulnerability in these regions. Even though it is often highlighted in the literature that these communities are vulnerable, there is very little knowledge about the daily, highly engrained cultural practises that allow them to cope and cultivate resilience. The ordinariness of culture has been overlooked as the basis of adaptive strength in most studies in favour of the large scale interventions of the government or non-governmental organisations. The indigenous residents of the Gosaba Block of Sundarban who bear the brunt of the impacts of the climate change are grossly confronted with the environmental concerns that cut across the socio-economic and cultural lines as discussed in this chapter. Raymond (Keywords: A vocabulary of culture and society. Oxford University Press, 1985) says that resilience is embedded in the mundane of the culture and is shown in daily lives of the residents of the Gosaba and their methods of adaptation. The particular environmental conditions the Gosaba Block has to deal with, i.e. sea level rise, erosion, salinity intrusion, extreme weather events are discussed and established in the paper. Through elaborate ethnographical studies, we determine the issues that need further research to understand the resilience complexities in the Sundarbans. This paper will fill this gap by exploring the special challenges facing this Gosaba Block in the Sundarbans through an in-depth ethnography approach. In addition to simple measures of resilience, we analyse how resilience can be observed in the daily practises of the community and in the adaptive strategies used by the community. The outcomes of our work are going to indicate the specific spheres that need further research and provide the policymakers with ground-based information that is informative.