Rising sea levels caused by global warming have covered the island of Lohachara off the coast of India. This is the first inhabited island to be washed off the face of the Earth, whose disappearance is attributed directly to global warming. Eight years ago, the first uninhabited islands began to vanish in the Pacific. The disappearance of Lohachara, once home to 10,000 people, is unprecedented. It was previously thought that the Carteret Islands off Papua New Guinea would be the first populated islands to disappear.

Two-thirds of the residents of Ghoramara, a nearby island, have been permanently inundated. Dr Sugata Hazra, director of the university’s School of Oceanographic Studies, says it will only be a matter of years before Ghoramara is covered with water too. He claims there are now a dozen “vanishing islands” in India alone. Homeless residents of Lohachara and Ghoramara have fled to Sagar, a nearby island which has already lost 7,500 acres of land itself to rising sea levels. It is estimated that in India, 70,000 people will eventually be homeless because of global warming.

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