Displacing the Conflict: Environmental Destruction in Bangladesh and Ethnic Conflict in India

Abstract

Recently, a substantial amount of research has been devoted to establishing that environmental destruction itself may be the cause of conflict. Conflicts may arise directly due to scarcity of resources caused by environmental destruction, and can also be the potential consequence of environmentally forced population migration. India and Bangladesh are in a long-standing dispute over the sharing of the waters of the River Ganges. Since 1975, India has been diverting most of the dry-season flow of the river to one of her internal rivers, before it reaches Bangladesh. At Farakka, this has affected agricultural and industrial production, disrupted domestic water supply, fishing and navigation, and changed the hydraulic character of the rivers and the ecology of the Delta in the down-stream areas. These trans-border human-inflicted environmental changes have resulted in the loss of the sources of living of a large population in the south-western part of Bangladesh and have necessitated their migration in the pursuit of survival. The absence of alternatives in the other parts of the country has left no other option for these Bangladeshis but to migrate into India. The large-scale migration, from the late 1970s, of these Muslim migrants into Hindu-dominated India has culminated in a number of native-migrant conflicts in the receiving society. The Indian state of Assam, which received a large proportion of these migrants, was the first to experience conflict. Conflicts between natives and migrants have now spread to other parts of India and have become a major issue for politically rising Hindu organizations. As this study determines, environmental destruction not only creates resource scarcity conflicts, it can also force the people to migrate, thus leading to native-migrant conflicts in the receiving society.

Impact of the Farakka Dam on Thresholds of the Hydrologic Flow Regime in the Lower Ganges River Basin (Bangladesh)

“…Swain [57] stated that the flow alteration brought much misery and hardship to approximately 35 million people in nearly one-third of the total area of Bangladesh, who are directly dependent on the Ganges Basin for their livelihood. This region is already vulnerable to cyclone and other manmade disasters [58,59], and the situation is more aggravated by the altered flow regime.…”

Connection among Water, Agriculture, and Human Rights, and Its Concerns in Bangladesh

“…Bangladesh's independence from Pakistan in 1971 signaled the beginning of a new era of conflict linked to the Ganges Basin management. The governments in India and Bangladesh agreed to operate the Farakka Barrage in 1975 for a forty days trial period to avoid conflict (Swain 1996(Swain :1991. After this trial period, India continued the water diversion unilaterally from the Ganges [27].…”

The need for community inclusion in water basin governance in Bangladesh

“…Once Bangladesh became an independent country in 1971, a new era of conflicts began but, given the intransigent position of India, the newly independent Bangladesh did not have the power to prevent the dam's construction. After failing to resolve the dispute, Sheikh Mujib, President of Bangladesh, agreed to operation of the barrage for a forty-day trial period in 1975 (Swain 1996(Swain : 1991. After this trial period, India continued to operate the facility without Bangladeshi approval (Nakayama 1997: 377).…”