Say It Ain't So Already

Rising Sea Levels Swallow Tiny Island — Ending 30-Year Dispute

March 24, 2010 at 3:11 PM Leave a comment

This from the MailOnline:

For nearly 30 years, India and Bangladesh have argued over control of a tiny rock island in the Bay of Bengal.

Now the dispute has been resolved – the island’s gone. Scientists claim this is as a result of rising sea levels.

New Moore Island in the Sunderbans has been completely submerged, its disappearance confirmed by satellite imagery and sea patrols.

Oceanographer Sugata Hazra, a professor at Jadavpur University in Calcutta said: ‘What these two countries could not achieve from years of talking, has been resolved by global warming.’

India and Bangladesh both claimed the empty New Moore Island, which was about 2 miles long and 1.5 miles wide.

Bangladesh referred to the island as South Talpatti.

There were no permanent structures on New Moore, but India sent some paramilitary soldiers to its rocky shores in 1981 to hoist its national flag.

Scientists at the School of Oceanographic Studies at the university have noted an alarming increase in the rate at which sea levels have risen over the past decade in the Bay of Bengal.

Until 2000, the sea levels rose about 0.12 inches a year, but over the last decade they have been rising about 0.2 inches annually, he said.

Another nearby island, Lohachara, was submerged in 1996, forcing its inhabitants to move to the mainland.

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