Kolkata: Between River Mouths and Ranges

The Golden Rule for locating any large city: look near bodies of water, such as rivers or oceans. Water is essential for many things - growing crops, fishing, transportation/trade, and drinking water, among others. I dare anybody to find an important city that is not adhering to this rule...

Kolkata (AKA Calcutta) is no exception, and in fact it is located on some of the most prime real estate on Earth. Not only is India's second biggest city (pop. 16-17 million) located on the large Hooghly River, but it is a mere 2 hour drive from the Ganges River Delta, which is the largest river delta in the world. If that is not enough, the Bay of Bengal begins where the holy river meets the ocean, known as the "Mouths of the Ganges," providing a sea route that connects Kolkata with the entire world. It is no coincidence that one of the most extraordinarily dense populations of people live in the Indian state of West Bengal, as well as the neighboring country Bangladesh. The more water there is, the greater amount of people can be sustained. Kolkata has been an important city for hundreds of years. It is most famous for being the capital of the British Empire, as it's strategic location between the ocean and the Himalayan mountains made it an easy choice. Though it was inhabited for centuries before the British came, its population grew significantly during British rule. It soon became a commercial center for the tea, coal, iron, and steel industries - it continues to be one. Kolkata was also the home base for influential people like Ramakrishna, Mother Theresa, and the author Rabindranath Tagore (I highly recommend his "Selected Short Stories").

When walking the streets of Kolkata, one gets the feeling of being swept up in a carnival of humanity. It is not a happy or fun carnival though. It is an overwhelming, chaotic, but somehow charming carnival. It is here that you will see people surviving and coexisting in the most pure and nonchalant ways. The most important thing to note is that space almost seems like a consolation prize in this city. Cars, rickshaws, and pedestrians fiercely fight for space on the roads and sidewalks. You will never encounter a more aggressive, but relaxed taxi driver. And no where else will you find a person in such a casual, deep sleep on a major sidewalk - he may even be happy to find such a great spot! I saw people living inside piles of garbage along a major road, and they weren't at all ashamed of it! The city feels more packed than the other cities I have encountered so far, but it does not feel awkward to walk among such a dense crowd. People are everywhere, but nobody seems to actually mind in the end, though they may jostle for space. The people here ultimately exercise great patience and grace in dealing with each other, as all residents realize that they must share what little space there is. Things move slowly here, but they indeed move. Imagine the parking lot right after a major sporting event, and you begin to get an idea of the atmosphere of a street in Kolkata.

But Kolkata has a very old-world charm to it. Many of the buildings in the center of town date back to the British Empire, and are stunning to look at. The Post Office, Train Stations, and Victoria Memorial are among some of the nicest colonial architecture in India, and maybe the world. A visit to the "Indian Museum" is like taking a step into mid 19th century England, as some of the exhibits even seem to have centuries old dust collected on them. Beautiful Hindu temples abound in the city, as do churches. Kolkata is also one of the last cities in the world to still allow hand-pulled rickshaws to operate - the barefooted rickshaw pullers are a recognizable relic of an older India. Amidst the sad poverty and heaps of garbage everywhere, there is at least a reminder of the past, which makes Kolkata a city that always provokes much thought and imagination. One can almost feel the history of this great urban center, whether it be good or bad.

Ironically, the location that put Kolkata on the map could end up erasing it from the map. According to the School of Oceanographic Studies @ Jadaupur University in Kolkata, sea levels rose by about .12 inches per year until 2000. Since then, sea levels have risen .2 inches each year. If you want more proof of rising ocean levels, a review of recent news will reveal that New Moore Island, located in Sunderbans Tiger Reserve (in the heart of the Ganges River Delta), has recently been completely submerged! The only good news about this is that India and Bangladesh will stop fighting over who owns it now.. This disappearing island is a possible sign of things to come in the future. Sea level rise does not occur when arctic ice melts, but rather when land-based ice sheets and glaciers melt and then drain into the ocean. According to the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, Greenland has lost more than 1.5 trillion tons of ice since 2000, and it's ice sheets are melting twice as fast now as they were seven years ago. Meanwhile, Antarctica has lost about 1 trillion tons since 2002.

Such changes in ocean level may have severe consequences for Kolkata and neighboring Bangladesh. According to the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, by 2100, the entire population of Bangladesh (about 145 million people) will be displaced because the entire landmass of the country will be underwater! 18% of its coastal area will be underwater and 20 million people will be displaced if sea levels rise by more than 3 ft, which it is predicted to do by 2050. Tigers in the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve have begun to migrate North due to the rising sea levels in the Bay of Bengal, to the south of them. People are crammed into this area already, and so tiger attacks have been on the rise in recent years as tigers and people are now forced to coexist. While tigers are moving to escape the rising ocean, humans may soon follow suit. Darjeeling and other Indian hill towns in the Himalayas to the North could find their populations swelling dramatically in the near future - a haven from the encroaching ocean...

Kolkata and its neighboring regions are situated in a fertile location that has allowed millions of people to survive for centuries. It is the biggest reason that the city has been home to so many for so long. But this and other cities that cling to the waterways of the world could one day find themselves with too much water at their shores and riverbanks. It is a strange paradox, that what gives life may also take it away just as easily. Kolkata is a perfect example of the fine balance that has so far been achieved, but what may one day crumble like castles made of sand...