West Bengal: Geoinformatics for Sustainable Environment Management VULNERABILITY STATUS OF GHORAMARA ISLAND AND PROBABLE ALTERNATIVES Sajal Ghosh Biraj Kanti Mondal Abstract The Ghoramara Island is a part of Sagar Island and belongs to the active deltaic part of river Hugli. This island was connected with the Sagar Island till 1903 and now located at 18.36 nautical miles away from Haldia dock in Hugli estuary. Though the British started inhabiting the island during 1811, the locale was established with the help of the ‘Sagar Island Society’. The island was mostly inhabited by the immigrants from the coastal area of Midnapore and others parts of Bengal. This island is under severe threat of erosion and has already lost almost 50% of its area in last four decades. This led to the submergence of a wide area of this island that consisted of land of agriculture and settlement. Consequently, having lost their lands, the peasants and farmers of the Island turned in to landless cultivators and daily labourers. So, it was sheer consequence of crisis of occupation as their main occupations were agriculture and fishing. Thus, the livelihood pattern of the inhabitants of Ghoramara Island became vulnerable by losing their own houses and lands and often they are bound to rehabilitate in the Sagar Island. To get rid of this vulnerable situation, an immediate step is necessary to prevent the erosion and thereby find an alternative occupation of the inhabitants. Ecotourism can be an alternative solution which can be developed in the Ghoramara Island as ‘Mini Gangasagar’. Thus, more employment opportunities can be created to the islanders by making the Ghoramara Island as a popular hub for the travellers. The present paper deals with the environmental issues related to the erosion and its possessions in Ghoramara Islands along with its probable suggestive alternatives. Key Words: Erosion, Vulnerable, Ecotourism, Migration, Ghoramara Island, Mini Gangasagar. 187