Article

International migration of Gangetic fishermen in South Asia, International Conference on Environment, Forced Migration & Social Vulnerability, Bonn, Germany, 9-11 October, 2008.

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the author.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the author.

... The Ramsar Convention mission reads " the conservation and wise use of all wetlands through local, regional, and national actions and international cooperation, as a contribution towards achieving sustainable developments throughout the world " . Being a responsible member of this great convention, India violates the pillars of the organization by causing depletion and contamination of surface and groundwater, eradication of inland waterways and natural breeding and raising grounds of more than 100 species of Gangetic fishes, depriving people of their cheapest source of calcium and indispensable animal protein from fish, loss of people's seasonal and annual livelihoods that were tied to the Ganges, its distributaries and sub-distributaries rivers and other surface water bodies, contamination of more than 75 million people's drinking water with arsenic, break off of families with a spouse suffering from arsenicosis, 20% fatalities from arsenicosis, climate change with an increased number of warmer summer days and colder winter days than the pre-Farakka time, scanty and erratic rainfalls, loss of numerous biodiversity before any inventory preparation, inland intrusion of saline water front and increased coastal erosion, destruction of the facilities for the observance of the minority Hindu's religious rites and general people's learning and performing water sports and other recreational activities, etc. etc. India has caused an ecosystem crash in the Ganges basin (Adel, 2001Adel, , 2002Adel, , 2003Adel, , 2004aAdel, , 2004bAdel, , 2005Adel, , 2008aAdel, , 2008bAdel, , 2008cAdel, , 2008dAdel, , 2012aAdel, , 2012bAdel, , 2012cAdel, , 2012dAdel, , 2013aAdel, , 2013b). India availed the benefit of being an upstream riparian country to pirate Bangladesh ecosystem's water. ...
Article
India has been pirating 60% of the Bangladesh Gangetic ecosystem's water since 1975 after construction of a feeder canal by the Farakka Barrage in the name of maintaining the navigability of the Calcutta Port located at the mouth of the Hooghly River. As a consequence, massive ecocide has unfolded in Bangladesh. India's forced piracy and Bangladesh's compelled consent to piracy, for a meager discharge, have continued for the past forty years. This study focuses on Calcutta Port's navigability source, navigability loss and past maintenance, India's water crisis, and India's use of the looted water resources. Sources of information included electronic and print media, site visitations, expert interviews, fieldwork, travel accounts, research institutions, and government offices. The study finds Calcutta Port's brisk use during the British period, Calcutta Port's Ganges discharge-independent establishment, India's development of other ports in post-independent India, the storage of the Hooghly's water in reservoirs, Calcutta Port's navigability loss unworthy of causing ecocide in Bangladesh, India's inland cruise line setup with the pirated water, and the stealing of water from border rivers. As a member of the Ramsar Convention inter-governmental panel since 1971, India's actions violate the Convention's doctrines of saving a permanent or temporary water body without regard to its location, kind, size, and depth through international convention. For environmental justice, India should pay Bangladesh earnings from the looted water's commercial use, cover dredging costs of Bangladesh's clogged rivers and canals, close the feeder canal, demolish the Farakka Barrage, and return the water to Bangladesh. Furthermore, India should be financially responsible for the full recharge of the groundwater, purification of arsenic, treatment for millions of potential and current arsenic patients and 20% arsenic fatalities, lost livelihoods, salinity removal, rebuilding of the eroded coast, revitalization of extinct flora and fauna, and establishment of normal climate.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.