Climate Change
Sundarbans' existence in crisis
Experts tell seminar
Experts yesterday raised a fresh concern about the existence of the Sundarbans against the backdrop of climate change.
One metre rise in the sea level could extinct nearly 70 percent of the world's largest mangrove forest, they said.
"The Sundarbans will be the worst victim of the sea level rise . . . the inundation of other parts of Bangladesh might be compensated, but the loss of Sundarbans cannot be recovered," expatriated climate expert Dipen Bhattacharya told the news agency on the sidelines of an international conference on water resources in the capital.
He said if sea level rises by one metre by the next century as per scientific prediction, 68 percent areas of total Sundarbans would be submerged and the forest would almost disappear with a two-metre rise.
Bhttacharya, a faculty of US Riverside Community College, said the demographic features obstructed Sundarbans' natural capacity to shift away for survival as it did centuries ago in natural course.
But the climate change phenomenon now exposed the forest to dangers of total extinction, he said.
Scientific data suggests the sea level across the globe was now rising at a rate of 3.5 millimetres every year due to climate change while some forecasts feared the figure could be as high as 5 militetres in near future due to intensified impact of climate change or global warming.
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