What Can Bangladesh Learn from Its Indigenous People About Coping with Disasters?
Bangladesh, as a low-lying country on the Bay of Bengal, is among those nations facing the impact of frequent, damaging floods. Catastrophic weather events are not new to its people—many have learned over the decades how to deal with them. Now their indigenous knowledge needs to be honed to help others facing the consequences of environmental devastation.
Predicting Extreme Weather
In his paper, Indigenous Knowledge and Practices in Disaster Management: Experiences of the Coastal People of Bangladesh, Dr. Mahfuzul Haque, from the Bangladesh University of Professionals in Dhaka, looks at the kind of traditional knowledge people in Bangladesh have been gathering.
Coastal people, for instance, believe that a wind blowing from the southeast is likely to create a storm, while a northeasterly wind could generate a cyclone. Haque’s research adds: “The wind direction is also associated with other attributes, i.e., a rise in sea water temperature, red colored cloud, and the appearance of a rainbow (if it is daytime) implying the formation of deep depression in the sea. … Abnormal behavior of the birds residing in trees is regarded as a signal of rapid storm approach. Also, cloud in the shape of an elephant’s trunk is considered to be a symptom of tidal surge.”
An Indigenous person from Rangamati in southeastern Bangladesh, interviewed by sociologist Joydeb Garai’s team for Climate change and cultural responses of indigenous people: A case from Bangladesh, said: “We can understand about the upcoming climatic events by analyzing winds directions, animals’ behaviors, weather conditions and take initiatives accordingly. If the wind comes from [the] west corner and the sky looks dark black, it means that the nor’ wester may occur, if the cloud looks thin brown and wind blows heavily, it means rain may not occur, but if the cloud looks dark brown and no wind blows, it means that heavy rain may come. After seeing these natural symbols, we make ourselves prepared to overcome it.”
Coping with the Effects of Climate Change
But it is not just predictions that Indigenous people are making; they are also developing ways of dealing with extreme weather events when they do happen.
People in flood-prone areas, such as in the charlands (shoal land surrounded by water) in northeastern Bangladesh, cope by building their homes on raised platforms on top of bamboo poles, making sure to reinforce them every year. The foundations of houses are plastered with mud, jute fiber, and husks, which protect the plinth (base) from flood water. They also plant a tropical species of grass, hemarthria protensa, around their homes to prevent waves from damaging them. And they get around on boats and rafts made of banana trunks.
One interviewee for the Garai study said: “We build our house in the upper place of the hill that flash flood cannot inundate our house. We also make the floor of the house 3/4 feet high from the soil by bamboos and woods as water cannot enter the house during flood. Moreover, to protect the house from strong flow of wind/cyclones, we plant different wooden trees and bushy jungles surrounding the house as the wind cannot hit the house directly.”
Haque explains how charlands, in particular, are vulnerable to erosion, floods, and cyclones: “The people there, almost every year they lose their land, and they shift their house from one shoal land to another shoal land, maybe ten to fifteen times in their lifetime.
“But they're not leaving those places, they're staying there because they know the techniques—how to survive in a very unfriendly environment.”
Adapting to Maintain Livelihoods
The charland people have adapted their crops so they can continue to maintain their livelihoods. Haque’s research states: “Indigenous knowledge in agricultural cropping is the adjustment with respect to crops before and after flooding. Selection of crops is very vital for the charland people. Usually, groundnuts and sweet potatoes are sown at the highest level of the land where the soil is slightly sandy. At the waterfront, the people plant Aman paddy [rice], which is adaptable to high flooding. ... There are also practices like inter-cropping to accommodate the risk of crop failure. The short-term flood sensitive Aus [rice] is sown together with the long-stemmed flood-tolerant Aman in the same field. Normal flooding would give two crops, while a dry year will give a good Aus but no Aman crop; abnormal floods will favor Aman but will affect Aus production.”
After flooding, farmers prepare floating seedbeds by placing banana trunks horizontally on the water, covering them with water hyacinth and mud. This is known as baira cultivation or floating gardens. As the hyacinth rots, seedlings are able to grow.
In areas where drought is prevalent, such as in the Barind region, farmers use traditional methods to protect fruit trees and other crops. Da jhoro is a way of watering plants by making a hole in the bottom of a bottle or earthenware vessel, pouring water into it, and placing it close to the plant, so that water drips at its base.
Influences on Disaster Management Practices
Does religion or culture influence Indigenous people’s responses to climate change? Haque does not believe they play a major role, apart from discouraging women from entering cyclone shelters. “There was the question of security and washing facilities and hygiene. Nowadays, special rooms are available for women,” he says.
But the influence of religion on their reactions to climate change have been documented by other academics. One of Garai’s interviewees comments: “During climate change extremity, we worship trees and pray (God and Goddess) to overcome it by singing, dancing and performing ritual activities. We also take shelter in the temple as we can save ourselves and our family from [the] evil power of hazards.” According to the research, those in some parts of southeastern Bangladesh “perform different cultural and religious festivals/rituals in their community, which increase their … community feeling to adapt to the adversity.”
Preserving Indigenous Knowledge
Traditional knowledge is passed to new generations in oral form. Haque says: “These people, their parents and grandparents have been following these practices.”
“But this is mostly in the rural community. Urban people don’t understand this language because it’s not the language of science. It’s not communicated to others since it’s not in written form. But there is a growing idea among the policymakers perhaps this has to be recognized, but it is still yet to be accepted.”
The contribution of indigenous knowledge to climate change strategies has been acknowledged under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, when the Local Communities and Indigenous Peoples Platform was established at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015.
But there’s still some way to go nationally. Haque claims: “In Bangladesh we have got something called the Standing Order on Disaster and other disaster management policies as well. But the problem is that we are yet to acknowledge the contribution of indigenous knowledge and practices. It is still at a community level.” The government’s National Adaptation Program of Action, which relates to climate change, tries to accommodate “some indigenous knowledge, but not much.”
“The scientists are to be convinced; the meteorologists are to be convinced that indigenous knowledge has a role to play,” claims Haque.
“The scientists are to be convinced; the meteorologists are to be convinced that indigenous knowledge has a role to play,” claims Haque.
Disaster management is improving, which might lead some to the conclusion that indigenous knowledge is working. The number of deaths from cyclones in Bangladesh has declined. According to a study Reduced death rates from cyclones in Bangladesh: what more needs to be done?, “… cyclone-related mortality in Bangladesh has declined by more than 100-fold over the past 40 years, from 500,000 deaths in 1970 to 4,234 in 2007.”
A few scientists are beginning to validate some traditional knowledge. For example, in 2014, those tracking golden-winged warblers in the US found that the birds left their breeding ground in eastern Tennessee to fly four hundred and thirty-five miles away, shortly before over eighty tornadoes struck the area. Meanwhile, some wildlife experts think that animals’ acute senses might help them to detect an approaching disaster before humans are able to.
Empowering Local Communities
When it comes to spreading local know-how, the Bangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK) is at the forefront. It enables individuals to pass on their valuable knowledge.
Lakshmi Rani Mandal, who lives in a village in Shyamnagar upazila (sub-district) in Satkhira, in southwestern Bangladesh, is a farmer who is in touch with BARCIK. She has been growing taro seeds for about 10 years but has had to adapt to deal with the climate. She says she used to cover her taro with straw, but the straw would dry and crumble because of the intense heat. When it rained, it would rot and prevent the taro from growing. That’s why she uses water hyacinth instead of straw, which means the soil remains moist for several days. The water hyacinth also acts as a fertilizer.
Meanwhile Abdul Jabbar, another farmer, based in the Poba upazila in the Barind region, explained: “We cover the roots of the pulses/trees with leaves and even kachuri leaves to protect them from the scorching heat. As a result, the roots of the tree remain wet during this drought.”
In the northeastern haor (freshwater swamp ) area, Nilima Sarker manages to rear livestock and grow vegetables, fruit, and medicinal trees, despite her land being underwater for almost seven months of the year. She creates gardens by hanging pots and other items on her home’s fences and on wooden pillars. Her innovative way of working has led her to become almost completely self-sufficient.
*Yasmin Prabhudas is a freelance journalist working mainly for nonprofit organizations, labor unions, the education sector, and government agencies.