The crisis faced by the island char dwellers in the floodplain and in the southern estuary delta are not entirely consequences of climate change as many may tend to argue. The multi-channel braided and meandering river systems of the country, with their historic, gradual and/or sudden shifts in courses, have destroyed hundreds of riverine villages in the past creating and re-creating almost routinely many chars in the process of erosion and accretion.
The island chars in the country thus have become characteristic features of our landscape and heritage. They rise from the riverbeds, which are largely made up of river deposition, erosion and re-deposition. The chars are often unstable, at least for the first few years, and as such often disappear as quickly as they appear. The changes due to erosion and accretion in the large river systems also change the landscape of the country; as a result, as one observer puts it: "there is nothing like an up-to-date map of Bangladesh." These changes have influenced human settlements and the way of life of the people in the Bengal delta since time immemorial that are truly reflected in our folk songs, stories and novels. In this regard, one must not forget the classic work of Manik Bandyopadhyay, Padma Nodir Majhi (The Boatman of the Padma), which describes the colonisation of new chars in the southern delta.
Unfortunately, we don't have any official statistics on island chars in the country. As per the web sources (https:// en.wikipedia.org), there are only 37 island chars in the Bay of Bengal. These are of course large, long-established and settled islands - for instance, Bhola Island, the largest in the country; others mentioned include Char Mantaz, Dublar Char, Urirchar, Sandwip, Manpura island, Kutubdia, Maheskahi, Sonadia and Char Faizuddin. There are, however, many more chars outside the list, for instance, the now-famous Bhasan Char in the Bay of Bengal. Many of these new islands are uninhabited and typically remain so until they are stable and above the normal flood level.
However, they are productively used during the dry season by people from the mainland and surrounding chars. Every year thousands move from the overcrowded mainland to try and scratch out a living in the island chars. The poor and poverty-stricken families and seasonal agricultural labourers who migrate temporarily to these newly-formed chars have contributed to the enormous death tolls in recent tropical storms and cyclones despite improvements in the early warning systems, preparedness and construction of shelters along the coastal belts.
The chars in the Teesta, Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Meghna floodplains are very different by formation and character than those in the Lower Meghna estuary. According to Banglapedia sources, the braided Jamuna has 56 large chars and 226 small sandy and vegetated chars. Char formations in the meandering Padma are different with higher incidence of attached chars, which are connected with mainland, creating new opportunities for settlement and agricultural activities. The Padma has a total of 13 large and 18 small island chars. The chars in the Upper Meghna are very old and stable; however, those in the Lower Meghna at the confluence of the Padma are large and wider. Of all the rivers, the Jamuna reportedly has the highest area - i.e., 45 per cent under chars within-bank area, followed by the Padma (30 per cent) and the Lower Meghna (20 per cent).
The Jamuna chars, particularly in Kazipur-Sirajganj area, are largely island chars in between channels. Some of the island chars are old and long-established - for instance, Char Janajat located in the upstream of the Padma Bridge site. Other large island chars in Kazipur are Char Girish, Char Tekani, and Char Natuarpara. In the last 50 years, Kazipur Upazila has lost over one-third of its land area due to continuous westward migration of the Jamuna River. As a result, the most serious economic losses experienced by floodplain villagers are perhaps not in the charland, but the old floodplain on the west bank, with long-established settlement and families, who are displaced by thousands every year. The land in the floodplain is thus an unstable resource - just like a "gamble" in the shifting river channels. As a result, in any given year thousands of acres of land are either lost or gained in the Jamuna floodplain.
The newly emerged chars in the Teesta-Jamuna floodplains, despite being subject to erosion and flooding, are used by the poor peasants during the dry season to feed their families. For peasants without land, the new island chars are a source for living and survival. People quickly move to these new frontiers for agriculture with their herds and build temporary shelters for grazing and cultivation until they disappear again into the river. For them, life is always on the edge; they resiliently dance with rivers moving from one char to another. This precarious way of life and survival in the chars makes, what is called a choura subculture, distinctly different socially and culturally from the mainland bhadraloks. There is always a cultural distinction between the char and the mainland.
Upward of an estimated 20 million people live in chars in Bangladesh. They are the poorest and most marginal and disadvantaged people in our society. Most people living in chars do not have proper houses to live, schools for children; they have very little healthcare, and no infrastructural support and assistance. The development and growth experienced by the rest of the country have not touched these poor people in the margin except for NGO (non-governmental organisation) activities in some chars and the UK/AusAID supported Char Livelihoods Program (CLP). Too often, our development experts look at the floodplains and the delta more in physical and technical terms - for instance, construction of bank protection works, cross-dams, flood control embankment and/or polders in the southern estuary delta and have largely ignore the needs of the char people, particularly their economic, social and human aspects.
The Riverbank Erosion Impact Study (REIS) Project, the Flood Action Plan (FAP/16 Charland Study), the First National Char Convention of 2015 and many other social-anthropological studies raised similar concerns and underscored the need for greater understanding of the relevant physical and socio-economic dynamics of char land development in the country. It is time to address the char development more holistically with a new set of policies, programmes and institutions. The government should take concrete actions not merely out of compassion for char people, but out of recognition of the determined needs for improved life and conditions of char dwellers.
Mohammad Zaman is a social safeguard/resettlement specialist and advisory professor, National Research Center for Resettlement, Hohai University, Nanjing, China. He has carried out extensive ethnographic research on disasters and displacement in the Brahmaputra-Jamuna floodplain. For many years, his core research has been on char settlement, their economies, and social organisations and how these have been historically shaped by the colonial and post-colonial land tenure systems and administration with regard to alluvial and diluvial lands.