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Paper short abstract

This paper focuses on the Adivasis in the Mousuni Island of the Indian Sundarban in the state of West Bengal in Eastern India, and their experiences of living with climate change.

Paper long abstract

This paper focuses on the Adivasis in the Mousuni Island of the Indian Sundarban in the state of West Bengal in Eastern India, and their experiences of living with climate change. Based on the field study conducted between 2021-23, this paper reveals the peculiar case of the Santal Adivasis with a unique history intertwined with colonialism, post-colonial development, and the struggles for survival in the middle of the challenges posed by cyclones, floods, and sea level rise. The Island is one of the most climate-vulnerable regions, and the Adivasi villages are closer to the river and sea, where many Adivasi homes have either shifted multiple times from where they lived before or are currently in dangerously rising water due to climate change. Adivasi communities are engaged in riskier and more precarious occupations with livelihoods dependent on water, weather patterns, and natural cycles unique to the Island that has evolved here for centuries. These interconnected relationships of the Adivasi communities on the Island make them more vulnerable to any event of climate change than other communities. The climate vulnerability reinforced by the structural inequalities puts Adivasis into a more precarious vulnerability. Beyond these structural vulnerabilities, Adivasi groups in the Island experience multiple discriminatory experiences during and in the aftermath of cyclones and floods.