Bibhas Mondal, a farmer of West Bengal’s Hasnabad gram panchayat, stopped agricultural work two years ago as Cyclone Aamphan of 2020 inundated the area in the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve with saline water making land unfit for cultivation.

Shikha Mondal from Khapu-kur village buys drinking water from a local treatment plant as tube wells only lift saline water for the same reason. The salinity of the underground water they get from tube wells is 5 PSU (Practical Salinity Unit) while the ideal should be zero PSU, said marine scientist Prof Abhijit Mitra.