Impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the socioenvironmental scenario of Indian Sundarban

Abstract Sundarban, the largest mangrove ecosystem of the world, situated in the delta of the rivers Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna spread over India and Bangladesh. The biodiversity of Sundarban has been threatened by natural calamities and increasing anthropogenic activities like deforestation, unsustainable forest use, conversion of forest to agricultural land, settlements, aquaculture, artificial embankments, poaching, pollution, netting of shrimp seeds, tourism etc. Such pressures are ultimately affecting the local socio-economy. The threat is also enhanced by other phenomena associated with climate changes. The effect of global pandemic condition due to Covid-19 lockdown has a significant impact on the socioenvironmental scenario of Indian Sundarban region. The objectives of the current chapter are to discuss the positive as well as the negative impact of Covid-19 lockdown on the socioenvironmental scenario of Indian Sundarban. As the tourism activity of Indian Sundarban area has been closed due to the lockdown situation, pollution from mechanized boats and launches has been reduced. It is having a great impact on the mangrove faunal biodiversity. Restriction in the anthropogenic activities in the upper estuarine region is also responsible for the betterment of environmental quality of the Indian Sundarban region. On the other hand transmigration of the labors who came back from other states are creating unemployment problems. Due to unavailability of transport facilities, the domestic workers are also unable to join their work in the urban areas. These situations are aggravating the natural resource dependency of both core and buffer area of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve area along with increasing illegal activities. Transmigration of the labors had initiated Covid-19 infection in different regions of Indian Sundarban. Solid wastes generated from disposed personal protection equipment (PPE) are degrading the environment. Entire socioeconomy of the region has become very much vulnerable due to Covid-19 lockdown situation. People of Sundarban witnessed several natural disasters and coped up the adverse situations with their resilience potentiality. It is hoped that they will able to come out from this social crisis through their experiences to fight against natural disasters occurred in this region.