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Sundarban is the largest active delta in the world lying at the estuaries of the Rivers Ganga and Brahmaputra. This region is rich in biodiversity and declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO. This delta region is prone to severe natural disasters as well as man-induced catastrophic events. Gosaba Block which is identified as the study area located in Indian part of the Sundarban delta, in South Twenty Four Parganas district of West Bengal puts forward an ideal portrait for people’s struggle and survival strategies against natural disasters. An attempt has been made in this chapter to study the perception of the main occupational groups on the effects of major natural disasters viz. floods, tidal surges and cyclones in Gosaba Block. An endeavor has also been made to explore local survival strategies which are effective for their sustenance in this vulnerable region. Three-hundred persons from different occupational groups, that is, people engaged in agriculture, fishing, crab collection, tiger prawn seed collection, wood collection and honey collection have been surveyed through a pre-designed questionnaire. Six Focus Group Discussions have been conducted, in which each of the groups comprised six members from a particular occupation. The study has revealed that all the occupational groups perceive threats differently from natural disasters and their perceptions vary according to their levels of exposure to the environment. To cope with the natural disasters, each occupational group has devised distinct survival strategies. For proper management of natural disasters in Sundarban delta region, the perception of people with different livelihoods and their survival strategies should be incorporated.

This chapter draws on the concept of orders of worth to generate understanding into how sustainable, good markets might be enabled at the bottom of the pyramid (BoP). Through an ethnographic study of the efforts of a non-government organisation (NGO) to create spaces where values and value at the BoP are unearthed, articulated, contested and translated into market-making practices. Insights are generated into how interventions to make-markets in sites of extreme poverty become ‘worth the effort’. In keeping with the market studies literature, the authors explore how multiple, contested and reframed needs generate insights into the efforts (and practices) that shape orders of worth in economic life. Orders of worth are the everyday practice of social values that constitute economic value and are framed through the moral values of social worlds as these values are put to work to calculate economic value. This work provides a contribution to the market studies literature through our understanding of the relationship between social and economic values in the creation of orders of worth, by showing how this happens at the BoP. Second, the authors contribute to the BoP literature by showing how places and spaces can be created and used to enable markets to unfold and happen. Finally, the findings contribute to our understanding of the types of practices and market-making devices that interventions might adopt and adapt in order to prod potential actors into action. The chapter identifies three types of enabling practices that make markets possible: connecting, integrating and reclassifying.

The Sundarbans is a unique ecosystem, the most expansive mangrove system in the world covering the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta system and spread over 10,000 sq.km across India and Bangladesh. The Indian Sundarbans have been witnessed to large-scale conversion of mangroves to settled agriculture and steady growth of population over the decades. With time, while population growth has taken place, there has been no significant change in the development scenario, as the agriculture and fishing dependent communities have remained trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty. Its deltaic location and its position in the path of cyclones, tidal surges and seasonal floods have made the people and landscape of Sundarbans more vulnerable than ever before. Cyclones affecting this region have grown both in frequency and intensity over the years and have caused devastation to the land, homes, lives and livelihoods. The problem of salinity has also affected the region relentlessly. Given this scenario, scenario of progressing vulnerabilities, livelihood losses have led to a gradual increase in out-migration of the adult male population. This disaster-led outmigration from Sundarban region as a whole has affected the social fabric of displaced communities to a great extent. This chapter makes an attempt to discuss results of sample surveys across six villages in three CD Blocks of Sagar, Gosaba and Kultali to trace the nature and dimension of the migration patterns of the region.

The decision of livelihood based on the embankment characters is essentially multivariate. Making an effort to do the bivariate modelling may eliminate the useful socio-economic information in the interdependent and simultaneous adaptation choices (Dorfman, 1996). Hence, the more appropriate method is multiple-choice decisions to livelihood adoption based on the embankment category. The purpose of this study is to find out whether the inhabitants of Sundarban really consider embankment as their “lifeline”, what they think about its sustainability and what the outer world thinks about the embankment.

To analyse this study, the multinomial logit (MNL) model has been used. This model gives a platform to study the influence of the factors on livelihood choice decisions. In this MNL model, the livelihood decisions are categorized based on their primary livelihood status at the survey. Thus, the choice of livelihood among individuals is explained in terms of the livelihood and the household characteristics.

This result can possibly explain the fact that increasing population or man power and increasing annual income and protection from embankment failure may reduce the need to choose any other form of economy apart from the indigenous one, as the society is dominated by farmers who own very small plots of land and face consequences like crop failure every year because of natural calamities. A unit increase in annual income would result in a 0.53% decrease in the probability of choosing labourer as occupation and 0.57% decrease in the probability of choosing fishing/“meen” collection as occupation.

The district is vast enough, and it is difficult to study all the blocks. Initially, nine blocks were identified as affected blocks from various literature reviews. Those blocks are Sagar, Patharpratima, Kultali, Gosaba, Kakdwip, Canning I, Canning II, Namkhana and Basanti. Pilot surveys were done to all those nine blocks identified above. After such a long and rigorous procedure, blocks were verified from available secondary data. Villages from vulnerable and less vulnerable parts of the later mentioned blocks are picked up as purposive sample, and household surveys are done on the basis of random sampling.

If the year of schooling is enhanced, then the tertiary sector gets benefited, but the indigenous society of Sundarban cannot depend on such a sector as the scope for development is very limited. Consequently, policies aiming at promoting adaptation to challenged livelihood need to emphasize the crucial role of providing basic needs for better production techniques; and more investment in this sector will surely enable villagers to adapt cultivation following age-old tradition.

The study uses the MNL model to investigate the factors guiding household choices of different occupational adaptation methods, and cultivation is found to be the automatic choice for the inhabitants of Sundarban. Cultivation is impossible without embankment. Thus, the embankment in Sundarban is considered, as “lifeline” is established. So it can be said that livelihood in this region depends on the stability of embankment. This age-old structure is susceptible to vulnerability because of its unscientific construction and improper maintenance. The main objective of this study is to find out whether the inhabitants of Sundarban really consider embankment as their “lifeline”, what they think about its sustainability and what the outer world thinks about the embankment.

The Gangetic delta, sustaining the Sundarbans mangrove forest at the apex of the Bay of Bengal is recognized as one of the most diversified and productive ecosystems in the Indian subcontinent. The deltaic lobe is unique for its wilderness, mangrove gene pool and tiger habitat. However, due to intense industrial activities in the upstream zone, and several anthropogenic factors, the aquatic phase in the western part of the deltaic complex is exposed to pollution from domestic sewage and industrial effluents leading to serious impacts on biota. The presence of Haldia port-cum-industrial complex in the upstream region of the lower Gangetic delta (adjacent to western sector of Indian Sundarbans) has accelerated the pollution problem to a much greater dimension. The organic and inorganic wastes released from industries and urban units contain substantial concentrations of heavy metals. The present article aims to highlight the level of selective heavy metals (zinc, copper, and lead) in the water and muscle of a commercially important shellfish species (Penaeus monodon, commonly known as tiger prawn) collected from two sectors (western and central) in the Indian Sundarbans. Heavy metals are accumulated in the prawn muscle in the following order – zinc > copper > lead – which is similar to the order in the ambient estuarine water. Significant spatial variations of heavy metal concentrations in estuarine water and prawn muscle were observed between the selected sectors, which reflect the adverse impact of intense industrialization, unplanned tourism, and rapid urbanization on the mangrove ecosystem and its biotic community, particularly in the western Indian Sundarbans.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a replicable model that ensures Household Water Treatment and Safe Storage as well as water treatment facilities at the community level by providing total service coverage at community scale. An intervention was implemented in one of the low-lying areas of Basirhat Municipality (West Bengal, India) that included a number of action programs in order to address household- and community-level water-induced challenges.

A research study was undertaken to identify the root causes of the problems that are generally spawned from geomorphological, hydro-fluvial, climatic factors and processes and the situation becomes complicated when many other cumulative problem-contexts layovers the existing ones. A number of social and technological innovations were tested in the field and this paper critically examined the intervention processes and outcomes. It was implemented through participatory process by involving related stakeholders working at that scale so that necessary public acceptance is received for scaling up, at least, in the similar physical, social, economic and institutional contexts.

The problem conceptualization process, spatial assessment for contextualizing the problem, design of interventions for different scales, development of project deployment strategies from field-based learnings contributed in developing a total solution based on fusing of household-level technical solutions, social innovations and actions for community engagements towards sustainability. Mobilized community members in addressing local inundation and waterlogging crisis. Satellite image-based maps shown to make them understand the upper-lower connection of drainage. People also developed their own action plans and engaged themselves in resuscitation of an old canal, removed the garbage that resulted in improved drainage conditions in the area.

Pandemic due to COVID 19 and its related prolonged lock down, West Bengal State Assembly Election, closure of municipal governance system due to the forthcoming municipal election, closure of educational institutions, closure of Anganwadi Centre in the field area were the limitations. Due to the lock down, it was difficult for the team to maintain the time frame as well as the budget. As per the Election’s Code of Conduct gets released no public meeting was allowed without permission, people in the vicinity became suspicious, hence movement of the team members got restricted.

Due to the COVID protocols, the team could not organise mass training programs. It was difficult for the team members to commute in public/private transport, hence filed work got impacted. As the team could not access data from the health department, they developed a strategy of generation data on body mass index, mid-upper arm circumferences and waist-to-hip ratios to understand the status of health and nutrition of the community. It was difficult to access the Public Health Engineering Department’s laboratory situated in the municipality for water sample test. Cost escalated due to extension of the project time.

During the second phase (wave) when people lost access to health facilities they requested the team to stop field visit. Women’s empowerment through acquiring knowledge and skill on treatment and safe storage of drinking water at home. Men appreciated and recognized this, which improved the status of women in the society. Children after expressing their willingness to learn the new technology of water purification were given handholding training by their mothers and knowledge transfer has taken place in the next generation. Mobilized community members in addressing local inundation and waterlogging crisis. Satellite image-based maps to understand the upper-lower connection of drainage helped them develop their own action plans and engaged themselves in resuscitation of an old canal, removed the garbage that resulted in improved drainage conditions in the area.

Household-level solutions include supply of low cost, easy operable, sustainable water purifiers, community-level solution focused on securing water-related challenges at social/public gathering places and wider catchment area level solutions include the engagement of local communities to drain out stagnant waters by clearing drains, creating/digging small canals through collective actions. Geo-spatial techniques (topographical mapping, spatial survey, water quality tests) along with social methods such as participatory appraisals for gathering information on human health, public awareness campaigns and partnership development with local government agencies were the major activities performed as part of the implementation of interventions. It is imperative to mention that water-related challenges in the low-lying settlement areas of Basirhat Municipality have effectively been addressed by relying on necessary theoretical underpinnings (Disaster risk reduction/humanitarian principles) transmitted through application of scientific techniques and mediated through local people and their agencies.