Sandeshkhali: How Adapting to Ecological Distress Led to Landgrabs, Abuse and Economic Oppression

Apr 9, 2024 | Ambar Kumar Ghosh and Sayanangshu Modak
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India’s recent political controversy in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal, highlights how adaptation to deal with rising salinity can go badly wrong: alleged landgrabs, economic oppression, and abuse. As the world’s largest delta – and home to over 100 million people across India and Bangladesh – these changes have large social, economic and political significance.

The key adaptation response to higher salinity in the Bengal Delta has been the transition to brackish water aquaculture, particularly focusing on shrimp-led growth. Initiated in the 1960s, brackish water aquaculture in the Bengal Delta traditionally involved small-scale farmers relying on natural shrimp delivery during high tides. From the 1980s, semi-intensive and intensive methods were adopted as farmers started to invest in tiger shrimp, followed by white leg shrimp from the 1990s.

At the centre of this change are local, village-level elected government institutions, known in India as panchayats. Historically, controlling panchayats has been crucial for anyone with major political ambitions in West Bengal, because they are hubs for patronage and mobilisation – panchayat services like governmental schemes and livelihood opportunities are distributed along party lines, bolstering political dominance. In most cases, the party governing at the state level maintains control of its panchayats using state machinery, resorting to violence to stifle opposition.