South Asia: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Islands of the Indian Ocean - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 252

Figure 9-3
This poor woman is trying to escape the 2004
tsunami with a pot of potable water .
© Mike Goldwater/Getty Images, Inc.

all roads from Dhaka were impassable. Bangladeshi' s very
existence is closely tied to the floods that inundate at
least 18 percent of the country every year.
It is understandable to associate Bangladesh and
flood disaster. But Bangladesh and drought? In fact, the
country does suffer from drought, especially in the
northwest. Since governments are geared to dealing with
floods, little if any aid reaches drought-stricken regions.
Victims are left to their own devices and must rely on
friends and relatives for support.
Bangladesh is also beset by cyclones . These tropical
storms swirl in a northeasterly direction from the Bay of
Bengal and wreak havoc across the nation. In 1970, a cy-
clone accompanied by a 20-foot (6.10 m) storm surge
took 300,000 lives. A storm surge is water pushed toward
shore by the force of the winds swirling around the storm.
When combined with a tide in an increasingly narrow
channel across low , flat terrain, it can cause an increase
in water level of 15 feet or more. In the case of the Bay
of Bengal, as the landform funnel narrows, the wave
heightens and wind velocities increase to hurricane force.
The 1970 storm surge wiped out fishing communities,
killed fishers, and destroyed boats, to the extent that 65
percent of the nation' s fishing capacity was eliminated. This
spelled human disaster in light of the fact that two-thirds of
the country' is protein is derived from seafood.
While rain and run-off floods can occur anywhere,
the impact of cyclones is most evident in the south. In
April 1991, Bangladesh faced the worst cyclone of any
since independence. The death toll was 138,000 people,
most of whom lived in the south.

The Sunderbans and the Tiger

The delta comprises 3,720 square miles (6,000 km 2 )
of ever-shifting mangrove, mudflats, islands, and
distributary channels. This region is called the
Sunderbans. Settlement, although discouraged by
the government, is virtually immediate after a flood.
Land and water configurations may be different, but
any land is space to be seized at the first opportune
moment. Even islands barely above sea level are oc-
cupied, at least until the next flood. Tigers are also a
threat to those living in the Sunderbans.
Those few Royal Bengal tigers that are left after
poaching are seriously threatened by rising sea lev-
els caused by global warming according to the
World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). The Pro-
jected rise of 11 inches (28 cm) above 2000 levels
in the Sunderbans will likely outpace the tigers'
ability to adapt. This is expected to reduce the tiger
population by 96 percent. This means that there
will be only 20 breeding tigers left!

THE PLIGHT OF CLIMATE REFUGEES
Concern over sea level rise (SLR) associated with global
change has drawn the attentions of scientists, politicians,
and concerned citizens around the world. According to
the W orld Development Report (2010), about 18 percent of
Bangladesh' s land will be submerged if the sea rises by