The Galloping Beaver
Erosion. Erosion. Erosion.
The Week, march 2003:
Environmentalists and scientists are worried about the big projects. "Already, two islands Lohachara and Ghoramara have suffered erosion," said Prof. Sugata Hazra, director of the department of oceanography at Jadavpur University. "The erosion has rendered 6,000 people refugees." If the forest vanished because of encroachment, Kolkata would be easy prey for cyclones, Hazra said.
http://cache.zoominfo.com/cachedpage/
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3a20+PM
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Mr. Nous,
Rising sea levels will cause increaseed erosion of low lying islands. Thank you confirming the GB's information.
Ha! I knew that was going to happen. At least we know where his head is.
"At least we know where his head is."
Stuck in the sand, on the beach as the water rises I hope? 
One doesn't need to question the reality of global warming to question how a 3.5 inch rise in ocean levels over the last 60 years can submerge an inhabitable island.
http://
seattletimes.nwsource.com...sealevel10.html
The 1 inch rise of the past decade is "twice as fast as the rate the oceans rose during the previous 50 years, ocean experts said yesterday."
Mr Sugata Hazra, the source for the latest news on Lohachara Island, and his staff presented a paper to the Asian Conference on Remote Sensing in 2001 entitled, "Assessment of Landuse/Landcover Dynamics and Shoreline Changes of Sagar Island Through Remote Sensing."
http://www.crisp.nus.edu.sg/~acr...df/
172HAZRA.pdf
The submerged island of Lohachara is just northwest of Sagar Island. Interestingly, in this paper he doesn't claim global warming to be the explanation for the shoreline changes on Sagar Island. Hazra and his staff have found that the rate of erosion increased greater than the rate of accretion. The paper explains that the islands in this estuary experienced a stable existence when the freshwater inflow from the Hoogly was of high intensity until the Ganges shifted course due to a recent tectonic tilt. Since then the islands within the estuary are experiencing a hydrodynamic imbalance. It is also noted that the sea level rise is 2.36 mm/yr...less than the global average of approximately 3mm/yr...the closest he comes to attributing the cause soley on global warming.
Now let's compare that rate of sea level rise to the rate measured by the Colorado Center for Astrodynamics Research at the University of Colorado. For the Bay of Bengal the average rise in sea level is 2.825mm since late 1992 (see inverted barometer adjustment)
http://sealevel.colorado.edu/res...du/
results.html
What should also be noted, that you won't hear from global warming advocates like Al Gore, is that this estuary is on the Faridpur Trough, adjacent to the Calcutta-Mymensingh Hinge. The Faridpur Trough is within the subsiding Bengal Basin. It is subsiding at a rate of at least 2 cm/yr!!!!
http://banglapedia.org/HT/S_0575.HTM
And for some context take a look at historical sea levels:
http://www.nio.org/aroundus/
Saga...vel_changes.jsp
But enough of that. Let's go back to Mr Hazra and his gross errors, exaggerated facts, or just plain lies. You decide. Take a look at Figure 2 in the paper presented at the Asian Conference on Remote Sensing. The change in shoreline extents has been demarcated. In Figure 3 he shows a graph of areal change over time. The graph shows a reduction of areal extents by a little over 12%, or 33.62 km sq. (The paper indicates 30 km sq). But does the Figure 2 map look like there has been that great of a change? I don't think so. Well, I planimetered the shorelines in his figure 2 and came up with some interesting calculations. For the 1999 boundary I calculated an area similar to his - 243 km sq (compared to his 240). But for the 1969 boundary the area is not 273 km sq as Hazra's paper claims. It's approximately 255 km sq - a difference of 12 km sq, or a change of about 5%!!!!
Mr Hazra, you claim Sagar Island has lost 30 km sq in 30 years, but your data says the island has lost 12 km sq.
But it gets worse for Mr Hazra. Let's refer to maps prepared by the US Army Map Service in compi
But it gets worse for Mr Hazra. Let's refer to maps prepared by the US Army Map Service in compiled in 1954, specifically sheet NF-45-11 which shows Sagar Island.
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/a...maps/ams/india/
I planimetered Sagar Island on this 1954 map calculating an area of 247 km sq, or 61,206 acres. Mr Hazra's area calculation for Sagar Island in 1999 is 240 km sq. Results? The area of Sagar Island has reduced in size by 7 km sq, or 930 acres. Not 7,500 acres.
But what does the recent news story tell us? Remember, Mr Hazra is the source. Here it is:
Refugees from the vanished Lohachara island and the disappearing Ghoramara island have fled to Sagar, but this island has already lost 7,500 acres of land to the sea.
Uh, Mr Hazra, your exaggerations have been exposed.
Mr Hazra repeats the error, exaggeration or lie again:
http://www.omantribune.com/index...8&
heading=India
Pointing out that the Sagar island, the largest among the 100 odd ones in the deltaic region, has already lost nearly 30sq km area in last three decades, he said that apart from the factors mentioned earlier, increasing population, rise in salinity in water, siltation at jetties and navigational channels were also responsible for the disastrous consequences.
Mr Hazra has submitted his latest study to the IPCC for next report on climate change. He has not released it or the data to the public. I wonder why? You got something to hide, Mr Hazra?
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