New Moore, also known as South Talpatti ( bn, দক্ষিণ তালপট্টি, Dokkhin Talpotti) and Purbasha Island ( bn, পূর্বাশা দ্বীপ), was a small uninhabited offshore

sandbar In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material and rises from the bed of a body o ...

island in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

, off the coast of the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta region.Global warming as peacemaker? Disputed island disappears under rising sea.
''Christian Science Monitor'', March 24, 2010 It emerged in the

in the aftermath of the

Bhola cyclone The 1970 Bhola cyclone (Also known as the Great Cyclone of 1970) was a devastating tropical cyclone that struck East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) and India's West Bengal on November 11, 1970. It remains the deadliest tropical cyclone ever re ...

in November 1970, and disappeared around March 2010. Although the island was uninhabited and there were no permanent settlements or stations located on it, both

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

claimed sovereignty over it because of speculation over the existence of oil and natural gas in the region. The issue of sovereignty was also a part of the larger dispute over the

Radcliffe Award Radcliffe or Radcliff may refer to: Places * Radcliffe Line, a border between India and Pakistan United Kingdom * Radcliffe, Greater Manchester ** Radcliffe Tower, the remains of a medieval manor house in the town ** Radcliffe tram stop * Ra ...

methodology of settling the maritime boundary between the two nations. The matter was resolved on 7 July 2014, when the

Permanent Court of Arbitration The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague, Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense, the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise ...

(PCA) delivered a verdict in the "Bay of Bengal maritime boundary arbitration between Bangladesh and India" case.

Geography

The island was only from the mouth of the Hariabhanga River. The emergence of the island was discovered by an American satellite in 1974 that showed it to have an area of . Later, various remote sensing surveys showed that the island had expanded gradually to an area of about at low tide, including a number of ordinarily submerged shoals. The highest elevation of the island never exceeded

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of the vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) of a location in reference to a historic mean sea level taken as a vertical datum. In geodesy, it is formalized as ''orthometric heights''. The comb ...

."Disputed Bay of Bengal island 'vanishes' say scientists"
BBC, March 24, 2010

Location

The island was located in the coastal, shallow

immediately south of the international

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders c ...

river, the Hariabhanga, flowing between Satkhira district of Bangladesh and the

South 24 Parganas South 24 Parganas (Pron: pɔrɡɔnɔs; abbr. 24 PGS (S)), or sometimes South Twenty Four Parganas and Dakshin 24 Parganas, is a district in the Indian state of West Bengal, headquartered in Alipore. It is the largest district of West Bengal by ...

district of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, India, at 21°37′00″N 89°08′30″E. It is now under the waves of the

Dispute

The island was claimed by both Bangladesh and India, although neither country established any permanent settlement there because of the island's geological instability based on silt deposits in a delta which floods every year. India had reportedly hoisted the

Indian flag The national flag of India, Colloquialism, colloquially called the tricolour, is a horizontal rectangular tricolour flag of Saffron (color)#India saffron, India saffron, white and Variations of green#India green, India green; with the ', a 24 ...

on the island in 1981 and established a temporary base of

Border Security Forces The Border Security Force (BSF) is India's border guarding organisation on its border with Pakistan and Bangladesh. It is one of the seven Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) of India, and was raised in the wake of the 1965 war on 1 December 1 ...

(BSF), regularly visiting with naval gunships. According to the

(establishing the

East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...

and India boundary in 1947), the 'mid-channel flow' principle or thalweg doctrine is generally recognized as the international boundary on river borders between these two countries. The middle line of the mid-channel flow (thalweg) of the Hariabhanga River established the original boundary between the states. Had the island not disappeared, the eventual determination of the island's sovereignty might have had a major impact over the location of the states' maritime boundary further offshore when it is negotiated between Bangladesh and India. There is no available conclusive evidence as to which side of the island the main channel flowed, and it may have changed over time given shifting

silt Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay and composed mostly of broken grains of quartz. Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when ...

of the Sundarbans delta. India claimed that a 1981 detailed survey of water depths showed the main and much deeper channel and main flow on the east side of the island, which favored India. Similar survey data was printed on a 1990

British Admiralty The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...

chart and reprinted on the 1991 US

National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) is a combat support agency within the United States Department of Defense whose primary mission is collecting, analyzing, and distributing geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) in support of national ...

(NGA) chart number 63330 Edition 9 at 1:300,000 scale. On the other hand, the Bangladeshi government claimed, as during

Ziaur Rahman Lt. General Ziaur Rahman (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981), was a Bangladeshi military officer and politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1977 to 1981. He was assassinated on 30 May 1981 in Chittagong in an army coup d' ...

's visit to India in the late 1970s, that data provided clearly showed the main current flow on the western side of the island's location, thus favoring Bangladesh. Under some

international boundary Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political borders ca ...

precedents, the location of the channel in 1947 or at the time of the island's emergence may have been more relevant than its later location.

River channels In physical geography, a channel is a type of landform consisting of the outline of a path of relatively shallow and narrow body of water or of other fluids (e.g., lava), most commonly the confine of a river, river delta or strait. The word is ...

may shift their locations from time to time. Based on a case filed by the Government of Bangladesh in October 2009 at the

the dispute was settled in July 2014 by a final verdict not open to appeal and in favour of Bangladesh. The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) verdict awarded Bangladesh with out of disputed area with India in the Bay of Bengal but with

South Talpatti New Moore, also known as South Talpatti ( bn, দক্ষিণ তালপট্টি, Dokkhin Talpotti) and Purbasha Island ( bn, পূর্বাশা দ্বীপ), was a small uninhabited offshore sandbar island in the Bay of Bengal, ...

Island in India's part. The verdict has recognised India’s sovereignty over New Moore Island also.

Disappearance

In March 2010, Sugata Hazra of the School of Oceanographic Studies at Jadavpur University,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

, India, said that the island had disappeared and that

sea level rise Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cry ...

caused by

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

was a factor. He said that sea level rise, changes in monsoonal rain patterns which altered river flows, and land subsidence were all contributing to the inundation of land in the northern Bay of Bengal. Hazra said that other islands in the Indian Sundarbans region are eroding very fast. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has estimated that 17 percent of Bangladesh will be submerged underwater by 2050 if sea levels rise by due to climate change.Sunk by global warming? Wave goodbye to this disputed island
''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', March 25, 2010 Hazra said that due to

global warming In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, temperatures in the Bay of Bengal area have been rising at an annual rate of 0.4 degrees Celsius and in the 2000-2009 decade, sea water level rose at a rate of a year.New Moore Island is no more as climate changes ends ownership dispute
Times Online, March 25, 2010 India is preparing to send a study team to physically assess the situation in the region.New Moore Island disappears
''

Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...

'', March 25, 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Moor Islands of West Bengal Geography of South 24 Parganas district Sundarbans Disputed islands Former islands of India Uninhabited islands of India Territorial disputes of India Territorial disputes of Bangladesh Former islands of Bangladesh Uninhabited islands of Bangladesh

Geography

Location

Dispute

Disappearance

See also

References