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Land use
Inhabited land amounts to
444,433 ha of which approximately 70% is under
cultivation and 18% forest cover. A total of 12% of the
cultivable area is irrigated, however access to
freshwater constrains wider irrigation which in turn
restricts the cropping intensity to an average of 1.32.
Current markets and marketing channels are poorly
developed due to the high cost of transport and the low
volumes of traded goods. Government support services and
price support schemes have yet to penetrate the Sundarban blocks resulting in highly seasonal trade with
markedly depressed returns. There are over one million
farmers of which 308,000 (29%) are agricultural laborers
and a further 30% are categorized as being marginal,
many of whom rent their handholding and are subsequently
employed to provide labor input.
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Fisheries
A total of 478,770 people
are estimated to fish in the Sundarban including the
adjacent Bay of Bengal. Of these, 144,171 are active
fishers. A total of 282 villages are fisher communities
with high representation of schedule castes. Within the
S24P there are 2,500 mechanized boats and approximately
4,000 traditional craft. The total catch from the
Sundarban is estimated to be 276,000 tonnes of which
nearly 200,000 tonnes is from the inland fishery. The
Bay of Bengal fishery contributes an additional 185,000
tonnes, the bagnet fishery a further 28,000 tonnes and
the Hilsha fishery up to 9,000 tonnes. Fishing effort
has doubled in the last 15 years resulting in a decline
in catch per unit effort (CPUE) from between 150-200 kg
per haul to 58-65 kg per haul. Current expert opinion is
that stocks are heavily exploited.
The collection of PL
shrimp has become a major income source with estimates
of up to 400,000 collectors involved within the
Sundarban. There are an estimated 1,500 to 3,000 million
PL collected per annum.
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Social Services
Social services such as
health, education, and police security are provided
throughout most parts of the Sundarban. There are
significant constraints to access during the monsoon
season, retention of professional staff to use the
facilities, and lack of service provision in specific
locations.
Access to energy is still
limited with 73% of villages not electrified. Even for
electrified villages many households are not connected.
Access to water is often limited and many of the
tube-wells in the N24P region are arsenic contaminated.
The increase in arsenic is not necessarily due to new or
growing incidence but due to increased testing for
arsenic.
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Gender and child issues
The
Sundarban has several aspects of inequity and social
injustice that are known to have wider ramifications
within the process of development. Females are poorly
educated, have limited access to employment, resources
and services. The age of female marriage is low at 14
years with the first child borne at 16 years. There are
significant levels of abuse and domestic violence within
local communities and the justice system does not
represent their cases appropriately. Social capital
within communities to support women is poorly developed
and there is poor representation and voice within the
existing social networks.
For children, often it is
their labor that is most valued in the household. As age
increases, the opportunity for employment increases and
schooling stops. Children without employment
opportunities engage in opportunistic behavior such as
PL shrimp collection. There are significant reports of
child abuse and child trafficking within Sundarban also
involving cross border trade.
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