Sea level rising : A Look Inside Bangladesh's Vanishing Island

MEET the villagers at the frontline of climate change - whose island home is being engulfed by the sea

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Rising Fear: The island's fishing industry has been severely hit by the change in sea levels

Kutubdia, in the Bay of Bengal, has roughly halved in size over the last 20 years as the waves overwhelm houses and fertile farmland.

Climate change and rising sea levels are causing the island's inhabitants to worry about the future

The island is prone to extreme weather, including cyclones and storm surges, which have increased in frequency in recent years.

Photographer Zakir Chowdhury visited Kutubdia on November 28 and 29, the day before world leaders met in Paris at the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference to begin forging a global agreement on tackling climate change.

Children pose at the water's edge holding a puppy

Chowdhury took stark portraits of the island's children - the future generation of a community that could be running out of time.

Children protesting to draw attention to the problems which their community is facing

Rising sea levels have swallowed up much of the island, causing disastrous erosion that has destroyed homes and farmland.

The majority of the islanders live close to the sea, with only a poorly-constructed dam protecting them from the encroaching water.

The youngsters hold placards on the day world leaders meet in Paris to discuss climate change

Shuchona Rani Dash, 60, said: "I have moved house three times on this island because of sea levels rising.

"Our cropland has been washed out to sea."

A child holds a young goat while posing for a picture

According to the UN Refugee Agency there were roughly 80,000 people living on the island in 2013.

But thousands leave Kutubdia each year as their homes and livelihoods disappear.

A group of fishermen, who have been servely affected by the rising water levels, busy at work

With some of the fastest rising sea levels on record at 8mm a year, Bangladeshi NGO Coast warns the island could disappear within the next 50 years.

Fisherman Jolil Mia said: "We are scared every time about the tide - sometimes it gets three or four metres high and washes over the cropland.

Zakir was interested in snapping the future generation of a community that could be running out of time.

"When this happens a day's amount of fish is reduced in this area in the sea - we fear for our livelihood."

The images also show Kutubdia islanders holding up protest signs as they held a demonstration on the first day of the Global Climate March on November 28.

The village has some of the fastest rising sea levels on record at 8mm a year,

Zakir said: "When I reached Kutubdia I saw the environment and nature of this island as like a defeated soldier trying to fight against climate change.

"While I was visiting, people asked me again and again to help them. Everybody is in fear about their near future."