Cyclone and Storm Surge - Iczmpwb.org

2.25
2.4.12. Colonization of the Sunderbans
Previously the entire area of Sundarbans was under forest. During the middle of Eighteenth century
when the 24-Parganas District was given to lease to the East India Company, almost the entire area
south of Calcutta was in a wild and uncultivated State with exception of small pockets of high land
bordering the Hooghly and Jamuna, once branches of the Ganga. Those areas were either swampy
or under the coverage of Forest and Jungle. The ground level was lower than the high tide level.
Being attracted by the fertility of the soil and close proximity of Calcutta some adventurous people
under the patronage of the then Collector General of East India Company, C. Rusell, started
cultivation in 1770 in Matla and Bidyadhari basin east of Calcutta. The cultivation was done by
constructing circuit embankments above tide level all along the deltaic channel to prevent saline
inundation and clearing forests and jungles within the protected zone. The drainage was done either
by Payna Cut of the embankment during low tides or by improvised type of wooden box sluices. In
1831 after the completion of survey of the Sundarbans area by Messres William Dampier
Commissioner and Lient Alexander Hodges, Surveyor of the Surevey of India the forest lands in
Sundarbans were given to settlers systematically on lease under Grant Rules 1830. This has
hastened the colonisation of Sundarbans by premature reclamation in wide areas spreading from
North Eastern boundary in Haroa, Minakhan-Srindeskhali area to Kakdwip, Sagar Patharpratima
area in South Western boundary. This method of land reclamation prematurely had not been without
its evils. On account of the embankments silt laden water at flow tide has been prevent from spilling
of over the land on either wide. The level of the land has remained low while the bed level of the river
has been raised due to deposition of silt. Rivers are choked and cease to function efficiently as
drainage and navigation channels.
The silt carried by the flow tide unable to spread over the land is being deposited in the channel bed
and is gradually aggrading it. A tidal channel when obstructed gets chocked in its own bed without
any chance of diversion by avulsion, as the energy required for the purpose is lacking, it not being
possible for a tidal channel to rise above the tide level. Thus the beneficiary activity of raising this
portion of the delta has been lost to the country and the land remains low with aggradation of
channel. The deterioration of the tidal channels has aggravated due to the absence of perennial
upland supply which could have clushed back aggravated the silt load deposited on the channel bed
during the semi-diurnal tide cycles back into the sea. No material contribution can be expected from
local drainage only during three monsoon months. The first interference was the premature
reclamation of the land on either bank of the Matla and the Bidyadhari. Boundary channels began to
deteriorate with the progressive rise in tide level of what may be called the "Heaping up tides". At port