Environmental Change, Livelihood Issues and Migration: Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, India

This book deals with the out-migration from the UNESCO designated Sundarban Biosphere Reserve in India. It focuses on the question whether out-migration is a consequence of environmental change or livelihood issues and development deficit. It investigates the processes of migration from a broad spectrum, exploring a wide range of economic, social, and demographic factors along with environmental stressors. The processes of migration studied and empirically illustrated include migration stream, migration pattern, reasons for migration, the nexus between migration and social network, aspiration and different human, economic and physical capital. The book adopts a modelistic approach called the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) to investigate whether migration from Sundarban is an environmental migration or not. In addition it uses the risk perception approach of people’s cognition or ‘affective imagery’ to examine the degree of perceived environmental risk in the means of living, especially farming and fishing, of the islanders of Sundarban. 

The book will be of interest to researchers and academicians in the areas of migration studies, geography, political science, sociology and economics.

Dr Avijit Mistri is currently working as Assistant Professor at the Department of Geography, Nistarini College, West Bengal. He did his postgraduation (M.Sc.) in Geography from Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, and M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Population Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has extensive work on Sundarban Biosphere Reserve in India in the context of climate change, sustainable livelihood, and Migration. He has published several research articles and chapters in a book in refereed national and international journals and books on this issue. 

Dr Bhaswati Das is currently Faculty of Population Studies at the Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Science in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She did her graduation in Geography from the erstwhile Presidency College, Kolkata and continued her higher education in Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.  Her area of research is Population and Development. Migration being one of the most complex human response of development she has published several research papers in peer-reviewed national and international journals on this issue. Several of her research scholars have successfully completed their doctoral thesis addressing issues on migration.