PRAMEYA FOUNDATION

For every Loose Knot bag purchased, a mangrove plant is donated, contributing to PRAMEYA's efforts in the fight against climate change.

For the past 5 years, Prameya has been involved in restoring and conserving the mangrove ecosystem in the Jharkhali region of the Sundarbans.
With the help of the women from the local community in the Sundarbans, they have created the Mangrove Action Committee. A part of this committee established a mangrove nursery which supplied 2,00,000 mangrove seedlings which are planted along the mud embankment of the village, which has restored a barren area of ​​about 5.11 hectares. It has also secured 2 km of earthen ramparts, providing additional protection for the village against cyclones and rising seas.

 

Mukut Biswas, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Prameya Foundation further talks about their work.
Our work area encapsulates the coastal areas of Sundarbans and Darjeeling Hills in West Bengal - two of the most vulnerable areas to climate change. We are part of the Early Career Ocean Professionals Program (ECOP) - an officially approved program of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030).
We have been able to conserve 31 acres of mangrove forest by creating community awareness and by implementing policies at the village level. This benefited 350 families which is about 1500 people in Tridipnagar village in Sundarbans. We have been able to establish two digitally empowered community education and skill development centers at the forest edge of the Sundarbans and the forest village of Dhotrey buffering Singalila National Park (a Red Panda Hotspot) in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal, where a total of 83 children are currently studying. We have also established community-led environmental protection committees in various forest villages in the Singalila region.

 

The organization has also conducted the 'Clean and Heal Sandakphu Trail' program in 2018 where we trekked almost 60 km and removed more than 150 kg of plastic waste from Singalila Ridge. Currently we are working on various projects like Creating Climate Resilient Livelihood project in Sundarbans, "Access to Climate Justice: the Sunderbans" – a joint initiative of West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences (NUJS) and King's College London.
We are also working on the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, with prominent environmental lawyers in India in the forest villages of the Darjeeling Himalayas.
The people of the Sundarbans and the Singalila mountain region account for less than a fraction of global carbon dioxide emissions, but they are among the worst affected by the effects of climate change. The already marginalized people bear the brunt of everything from rising sea levels, man-tiger conflicts, increased intensity of cyclones, erratic rainfall, crop failure, etc. These areas need urgent intervention from the global community, otherwise it is not certain what the future holds for them, for us, in this part of the world within a decade.`

We believe that PRAMEYA can make a significant difference to the Sundarban landscape and do climate justice for its inhabitants.
Together we can help stop climate change towards a better use of resources for a greener and better planet.