VYPIN ISLAND, India — On the receding shorelines of low-lying Vypin Island off India’s western coast, T. P. Murukesan mounted his eyes on the white paint peeling off the damp partitions of his raised residence and recounted the latest floods.

“The floods are occurring more frequently and lasting longer,” he stated. The final flood was chest-height for his younger grandson. “Every flood brings waters this high, we just deal with it.”

Sea degree rise and extreme tidal floods have pressured many households in Murukesan’s neighborhood to relocate to increased grounds through the years. But the retired fisherman has nearly singlehandedly been buffering the impacts of the rising waters on his residence and in his neighborhood.

Known regionally as “Mangrove Man,” Murukesan has turned to planting the bushes alongside the shores of Vypin and the encircling areas within the Kochi area of Kerala state to counter the impacts of rising waters on his residence.

Tidal flooding happens when sea degree rise combines with native elements to push water ranges above the traditional ranges. Mangroves can present pure coastal defenses towards sea degree rise, tides and storm surges, however over the course of his life forest cowl within the state has dwindled.

Murukesan stated he grew up surrounded by stunning, ample mangroves that separated islands from the ocean. Now, solely fragmented patches of mangroves will be seen in Kochi, the state’s monetary capital.

“They protected our houses against floods, sea erosion, and storms, used to be an inseparable part of our life, our ecosystem,” he stated. “Only these can save us.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a part of a sequence produced beneath the India Climate Journalism Program, a collaboration between The Associated Press, the Stanley Center for Peace and Security and the Press Trust of India.

Murukesan stated he has planted over 100,000 mangroves. He crops saplings on alternate days and does a lot of the work himself. Some assist comes within the type of saplings from the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, a non-government group primarily based in Chennai, India.

His efforts come up towards a robust pattern in the wrong way.

Ernakulam district, which incorporates Kochi, has misplaced almost 42% of its mangrove ecosystems, together with main decreases within the southern Puthuvypeen space in Vypin, in line with a examine launched final 12 months by the Indian Space Research Organization and the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies.

Mangrove cowl within the state has lowered from 700 sq. kilometers (435 sq. miles) to only 24 sq. kilometers (15 sq. miles) since 1975, in line with the Kerala Forest division.

“The construction of coastal roads and highways has severely damaged mangrove ecosystems in the state,” stated Okay Okay Ramachandran, former member secretary of the Kerala Coastal Zone Management Authority, a authorities physique mandated to guard the coastal environment. “There should be an incentive for people who are making efforts to protect them.”

Murukesan’s dedication to the trigger has received him reward, awards and the viewers of senior politicians however not incentives past the instant advantages to his residence.

He stated the mangroves he planted in and across the space in 2014 have grown right into a dense thicket and are serving to scale back the depth of tidal flooding, however he’s nonetheless persevering with his efforts.

Despite the hundreds of recent mangrove bushes, different elements like local weather change imply tidal floods have develop into extra frequent and extreme, typically retaining youngsters from going to high school and folks from attending to work. It’s all mentally exhausting, Murukesan and his spouse, Geetha, stated.

“I have to travel a lot to collect seeds. My wife helps me in the nursery as much as she can. I am tired but I cannot stop,” he stated.

Geetha stated they do the powerful work “for our children,” preserving the forest for many years to return.

“It keeps us going,” she stated.

Vypin is at high-risk for tidal flooding, stated Abhilash S, director of the Advanced Centre for Atmospheric Radar Research on the Cochin University of Science and Technology.

“The sea degree has risen and has broken freshwater provides. Sea erosion and spring tides have worsened. Coastal flooding is a standard incidence now,” he said. “The carrying capacity of the backwaters has reduced due to sediment deposition and encroachment, and the rainwater enters residential areas during the monsoon season.”

Backwaters in the state of Kerala are networks of canals, lagoons and lakes parallel to coastal areas, unique ecosystems that help provide a buffer to rising sea levels.

According to the World Meteorological Organization, global mean sea level rose by 4.5 millimeters per year between 2013 and 2022. It’s a major threat for countries like India, China, the Netherlands and Bangladesh, which comprise large coastal populations.

NASA projections show that Kochi might experience a sea level rise of 0.22 meters (8.7 inches) by 2050, and over half a meter (nearly 20 inches) by 2100 in a middle-of-the-road climate warming scenario.

“Many families have left,” Murukesan said.

Fishing families living within 50 meters (55 yards) of the shore get a financial assistance of 10 lakh rupees ($12,000) through a rehabilitation scheme run by the Kerala government. Only few of those not covered under it have means to relocate to safer places.

Some fishing families shift to government shelters in the monsoon season and return after it ends. A few have built stilt houses that stand on columns to fight tidal floods.

Murukesan knows the sea is rising, but it’s the backwaters that make him more anxious. The backwaters have become shallow due to the silt deposited by heavy floods. During heavy rain events, the water inundates the island.

“We are caught between the sea and the backwaters. They are likely to swallow the island in some years, but I am not going anywhere,” he stated. “I used to be born right here, and I’ll die right here.”