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Biosphere III: The site of unprecedented ecocide in the Ganges basin

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... Subcutaneous fat protects the body's temperature. Unusual number of deaths in winter time were reported by Adel (1999aAdel ( , 2000bAdel ( , 2003. Those deaths could be related to protein deficiency. ...
... The Ganges water would compensate for about 50% of the water budget in the basin. A 60% reduction in the flow of the Ganges has mattered a lot (Adel, 1999a(Adel, , 2000a(Adel, , 2000b(Adel, , 2001(Adel, , 2002(Adel, , 2003(Adel, , 2004a(Adel, , 2004b(Adel, , 2005(Adel, , 2008b. Following the dwindling flow in the Ganges, at the point of origin of the distributaries where the flow velocity drops, there is more time for deposition of sediment because the gravity-induced downward speed becomes stronger than what is in upstream positions in the presence of strong downward speed. ...
... Hindustan Builders, the construction company of the Farakka Barrage, has (i) rendered numerous families destitute by affecting their livelihood, (ii) made an uncounted number of aquatics and amphibians extinct, (iii) snatched away downstream country's ecosystem's elixir water, (iv) contaminated the drinking water with arsenic poisoning, (v) made numerous suffer from arsenic contamination, (vi) been causing family break-offs, (vii) been causing one out of five deaths by arsenic poisoning, (viii) created people's malnutrition, (ix) rendered climate extreme and caused outbreaks of environmental diseases that takes a heavy toll, particularly, during the winter, (x) made people suffer from malnutrition, (xi) increased coastal erosion by diverting naturally depositable sediments to the India coast and causing inland deposition of sediment within the downstream country, (xi) caused inland intrusion of the saline water front. The internal immunity system of the downstream country has been broken down making a leeway for natural calamities like the increased occurrences of inland and Bay Bengal tornados that takes a heavy death toll and property loss as well as increased fatalities due to lighting strikes (Adel, 1999a(Adel, , 1999b(Adel, , 2000a(Adel, , 2000b(Adel, , 2001(Adel, , 2002(Adel, , 2003(Adel, , 2004a(Adel, , 2004b(Adel, , 2005(Adel, , 2008a(Adel, , 2008b(Adel, , 2008c(Adel, , 2012a(Adel, , 2012b(Adel, , 2013a(Adel, , 2013b(Adel, , 2013cMiah, 1996aMiah, , 1996bMiah, , 1996cMiah, , 1996dMiah and Samad, 1996;Rahman, 1997). ...
... Due to the piracy of the elixir water, many elements of the biotic system have been extinct and the rest are endangered. The ecocide effects in the Ganges basin include the loss of the surface 86 Upstream Water Piracy, the Strongest Weapon of Cornering a Downstream Nation water resources, destruction of the inland navigable routes, the depletion of the natural breeding and raising grounds of 109 species of Gangetic fishes and the natural wells for groundwater recharge, the alarmingly sinking of the groundwater table and its contamination with arsenic in the continued absence of the recharging surface water and the over-dependence on the groundwater, the sufferings of 75 million people from the risk of arsenicosis causing a 20% fatality, the break-off of family ties of arsenic patients, rising malnutrition among the people from the scarcity of fish, the cheapest sources of calcium and the indispensable animal protein, the loss of people's annual and seasonal livelihoods, the generation of extreme climate with an increased number of warmer summer days and colder winter days than before the beginning of the piracy in1975, scanty and erratic rainfalls, the loss of numerous biodiversity before the preparation of an inventory, coastal erosion, widespread inland advancement of saline water front, and the deterioration of the Ganges water quality (Miah, 1995(Miah, , 1996a(Miah, , 1996c(Miah, , 1996dMiah and Samad, 1996;Miah, 1997;Adel, 1999aAdel, , 1999bAdel, , 2000aAdel, , 2000bAdel, , 2001Adel, , 2002Adel, , 2003Adel, , 2004aAdel, , 2004bAdel, , 2005Adel, , 2008aAdel, , 2008bAdel, , 2012aAdel, , 2012bAdel, , 2013aAdel, , 2013bAdel, , 2013c, 2013d, 2013e) ...
... No treaty was operational during 1988-96. India unilaterally pirated the Ganges water during the dry season for those eight straight years causing ecocidal effects in Bangladsh (Adel, 1999(Adel, , 2001(Adel, , 2003(Adel, , 2005. Water is the elixir for the ecosystem. ...
... The discharges in the Ganges up to the treaty time are shown in Fig. 11. Water shortage left its impression in the irreparable losses in many known and unknown sectors of the downstream country (Adel, 1999(Adel, , 2001(Adel, , 2002(Adel, , 2003(Adel, , 2005. . Even though India got the green card for water piracy, she started stealing water in the darkness of night, as she did in the past (Begum, 1988), and blamed the solar radiation for not being strong enough to melt the Himalayan ice (Burns, 1997) The two Indian water piracy authorizations of 1977 and 1996 have been compared in Figs. ...
... The problem lingered because of the lack of Indian goodwill. The results of Indian punishment to Bangladesh have been published in a number of articles (Adel, 1999Adel, , 2001Adel, , 2002Adel, , 2003Adel, , 2005). Indian side raised the absurd link canal (Fig. 2 No treaty was operational during 1988-96. ...
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The article studies over 100 meetings between India and Bangladesh, the resulting temporary water- sharing agreements on the Ganges water, and the Indian grand river networking plan and its potential downstream impact. The Indian Ganges branch, the Hugli, lost its navigability because of dam constructions on its tributaries. India then constructed the Farakka Barrage on the Ganges to divert the Bangladesh Ganges water to the Hugli. India broke the agreement of a 41-day test-run of the barrage in April-May 1975, and unilaterally diverted water till the end of 1977 when a 5-year treaty was signed after raising the issue to the UN General Assembly that prompted Indian dailies' heinous comments against Bangladesh. Later, two memoranda of understanding were signed by the two governments in 1982 and 1985. Unilateral water diversion continued from 1988 through 1996 toward the end of which a 30-year treaty was signed. Unilateral water diversion from the downstream country's share is a gross violation of human rights, and the procrastination in a permanent water sharing treaty along with a subcontinental scale river networking plan is downstream ecosystem-destructive. For the ecosystem's survivability, UN should mediate transboundary water conflicts.
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ABSTRACT Since the 80’s, the northwestern and the southwestern parts of the tropical Bangladesh located in the downstream Ganges basin have been having summer temperature above 109°F and winter temperature as low as 37°F. Every year people, particularly, the infants die from heat-and cold-related diseases and hospitals become packed-up with the victims of severe climatic condition. The objective of this research is to find the reason for the appearances of the extreme climate in certain parts of the country. Water bodies being reservoirs of heat, the condition of the rivers and other surface water resources has been examined. It is found that the continued water piracy at the upstream from the downstream Bangladesh Ganges discharge, the major source of water for the northwestern and southwestern parts, has depleted surface ater resources and sunken the down the groundwater table. About 60% evaporation of the massively extracted groundwater to make up for the surface water shortage goes to merely increase the relative humidity without causing rainfall. Summer time lingering high temperature and high humidity cause the severity of summer weather. In the absence of the virgin surface water bodies, there is little room for storing heat for wintertime warming. The entire Ganges basin loses at least 10 times the heat it used to store in the water abundant days. Summertime maximum temperature, HDDs and CDDs are negatively and wintertime minimum temperature is positive correlated with the decline of the Ganges’s discharge. Indian Government has to decommission her dams and barrages to mitigate the sufferings of the downstream people in Bangladesh. The greatest implication of this research is the accountability of the anthropogenic actions-caused depleting inland water bodies through storing, distribution via multi-channeling, irrigation, industrial and domestic use, for the occurrences of global heating vis-à-vis cooling and not CO2 and other greenhouse gases accumulation in space. Immediate international actions are needed to end the episode.
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.
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