Summer, 2012. The marks of devastations caused by Aila, which struck back in 2009, are still lurking everywhere around the Sundarban. Though people were able to make repairs in their houses and somehow manage, their agriculture took a huge toll. At many places, salt water from the sea has entered into the crop fields and got stuck there due to poor drainage — making the soil absolutely infertile for a couple of years. Ploughing and farming haven’t returned to the island, though three years have passed since Aila pulverized the region. Paddy seeds sowed on the fields filled with stagnant saline water are giving rise to saplings with anomalies. Roots of these saplings are not growing deep underneath the surface. Though salts have faded away from the primary layer, it is still present in the layers below.

It’s during this time that I received an invitation from Dayapur, a small village located in the remote island of Satjelia of Gosaba block. A local club from the area invited me to be a speaker at a conference whose agenda involves global warming and climate change. I had the responsibility to explain to a bunch of rustic fishermen how global warming and climate change are affecting the people of Sundarban. Now I always carried a strong distaste for the idea of having a conversation behind closed doors, in a very trivial, seminar-like manner — compiled with tedious facts and figures. But when I get an opportunity to talk and interact with simple rural folks, I never let that chance go waste!

Anyways, this isn’t the right place to talk about the ‘conference’……

Various sorts of music performances were done in that conference, along with a few lecture sessions. While sitting at the stage and listening to lectures given by other distinguished guests, I noticed a couple of tarpaulins lying below the wooden stage. At the middle of the tarpaulin, I could see the word ‘UNICEF’ written quite distinctly, along with its world-famous logo! Needless to say, I was quite surprised.

The next morning, a small discussion was going on over a cup of tea at a local tea joint. Gradually many localites started joining the discussion. Among them, a person came forward and after a few rounds of conversation, I get to know from him that he constructed the last night’s stage; he is the only decorator living in that village. Out of curiosity, I asked him where he found the tarpaulins with UNESCO emblem. It was time for me to be surprised again — he bought them for Rs. 200-250 apiece from the villagers. Yes, these tarpaulins were provided by the UNICEF team to the villagers who lost their homes to the cyclone. After two years, the degree of misfortune remained the same, but the value for such tarpaulins decreased. Season after season, without the lands being ploughed, there rose demand for cash money and crops. So, they were forced to sell these UNICEF-sponsored tarpaulins to the decorator for such a meagre amount.

Such an incident though looks insignificant at plain sight, speak of a crucial side of natural disaster-affected islands of the Sundarban; of the regions development curve. The spotlight on Sundarban falls only when the region faces any natural calamity. Then numerous NGOs and people come forward to help the unfortunate people of the islands and provide foods, monetary assistance, etc. After a few days, the interest of the general public and these organizations slowly fades away. Even the nature of demand of the villagers change over time; people who could take care of such demands and solve their issues slowly disappear with time as well.

Just a few of months ago, super cyclone Amphan went through the islands of the Sundarban, destroying almost everything that came across its path. The overall volume of relief commodities sent to the Sundarban is quite larger than that of previous times. Rice, pulses, soya beans, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, etc. were included in this relief program.

But after three months since that incident, do you think the demands of every person who was badly affected by that disaster, got fulfilled? It is very hard to trace even a few individual or organization, barring one or two, who keep a track of such demands regularly. If we investigate meticulously, we will find that most of the earthen houses which were demolished by the wind have been erected again in the same fashion, without proper support to withstand severe winds.

The region is waiting anxiously for another massive-scale calamity and post-destruction reliefs. If we don’t consider thinking of any long-term development, the end result of all the reliefs, all the aids sent to the people here would ultimately be like the tarpaulins of UNICEF — misused and squandered.

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I have been wandering the nooks and crannies of the Sundarbans for almost 12 years, being closely associated with others working for prolonged periods in this area. Travelling through the small villages of the Sundarban, I have realized, the knowledge gathered over generations by the natives of this area is quite enviable to many researchers.

I met Mahendra Bauliya in the village of Shamshernagar in the Hinalgaunj block on the India-Bangladesh border at the confluence of rivers Shakunkhali and Kalindi. Stooped with age, the old man stood looking out to the Jhingekhali Jungle, a tiger reserve. I remember seeing tiger footprints on the riverbank just sometime earlier. In that village, almost no household has been left untouched by the tigers. Mahendra was looking up at the red skies at dusk. He asked, do you know what those birds are doing? I observed a flock of birds flying up and coming down again. I replied, probably they are returning home at the end of the day. Mahendra said, no, the mother is teaching them to fly. Mahendra needs not to study science books to learn about the movements of birds.

Once while returning from Sajnekhali, a friend of ours stopped the boat. He heard that the stem of the Hetal tree acts like a snake repellent. He asked to stop on seeing one of those. The cook of our boat went down to collect one. A small girl was standing near the tree. Seeing us approach, she set off towards her house and soon returned with her mother. The village woman berated our actions in words not appropriate to be printed. However, thousands of research papers and seminars were not as effective as this intense protest. 

Local people depend on the forest for their livelihood. One such veteran, Ajit Mouli, told me of his escapes from the clutches of a tiger three times. When faced with the tiger, if you maintain eye contact and slowly back away, it may not pounce. If he had turned his back to the animal, no one would have been there to tell me that story. These are anecdotes property of these veterans— no zoologists glean this information from their books.

When Saral Das of Mausuni Island in Namkhana Block said, they are afraid only if the wind blows from the east; I wondered how he came about that information. Located on the very shores of the Bay of Bengal, this island is in imminent danger from the strong wind blowing from the south. These people have intimate knowledge of the nature of cyclonic winds in the northern hemisphere. He knows instinctively which winds are friends or foes. 

In the last village of G-plot island, Gobardhanpur, once I held a conversation with two elderly men over a cup of tea. They talked of a huge population of tigers in the south of that island. That very afternoon I saw that area of Bay of Bengal, which was almost barren. Tigers? There? I laughed at them. Returning home, I was shocked to see the old maps. The southern part of Gorbardhanpur village was covered in dense vegetation only fifty to sixty years back. 

The opinions of the native inhabitants have not held much weight in previous studies on the Sunderbans, although they are a storehouse of information for unanswered questions. Even ready questionnaires or general unspecified interviews do not help much in research. 

To learn of these mysteries of the land, becoming one with them may unearth the key to some of the ever eluding enigmas.

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After being struck with Aila, many people were forced to leave their homeland- the Sundarban Delta. COVID -panic has forced them to return. Many of them were planning to settle down in the Sundarbans itself, but Amphan forced them to reconsider. These migrant workers returning to the Sundarban are now in search of alternative livelihoods. In this period of crisis, tourism can be a new way of earning a living.

For quite a long time, the tourism system in the Sundarbans has been monopolized by a few launch owners and associated travel agencies. Travel in the Sundarbans customarily refers to a trip where you book a boat for two days; stay at hotels within your budget, cruise around through waterways, look at the vast jungles from a distance from watchtowers and then return.

Contrary to popular belief, the densely populated villages surrounding the Sundarban are no longer inaccessible in terms of transport. The prospects of tourism have changed all over the world. What is life like on the islands of this World Heritage Site? Many are eager to experience the culture of the native inhabitants of the Sundarbans. This is where there is an opportunity to create a wide range of alternative livelihoods.

Consider the example of small villages in the northeast - a lot of people are making a living by providing only accommodation for tourists, something commonly referred to as ‘home-stays’. However, this system won’t be appropriate for the Sundarbans.

The main reason for this would be the perception bred in foreign tourists that the Sundarbans, a land of water and forest, communication is difficult. It is not often considered how the thousands of people who live in the villages of the Sundarbans commute regularly. If one has some more time, public transport can now be used to travel around the Sundarbans. Roads have improved; bridges have been built across many islands. Rather than booking a routine river cruise, many would be more interested in visiting the various villages in a van or toto, after taking a ferry across the rivers. These will also be more cost-effective than cruise fares.

The entire Indian Sundarban needs to be open in this manner, not only the Gosaba region. One of the most important historical monuments in the Sundarbans, Jatar Deul, can be reached without any boats. Today, one or two rivers are all that stand between the tourists and the remote islands of the Sundarbans. It requires only 5 minutes to reach Samshernagar by boat, a village on the India-Bangladesh border. Tourists must be made aware of these facts; given the correct information.

With the monopoly of city-based tour operators, a minuscule fraction of the profits from this tourism reaches the local people. Their lives are spent in mundane tasks like being the cook of the cruise boat or a hotel manager.

The scope lies in the means of accommodation. This can provide alternate opportunities for the subsistence of many families. Tourists would not miss the opportunity to enjoy a home-stay on a remote island, visiting the surrounding villages, eating home-cooked fish and crab from local rivers. Need some basic things like clean washrooms, purified drinking water, and safety. Various schemes have been undertaken by the government to provide permanent employment for the returning people. On a few islands, residents could be encouraged to set up some home stays on an experimental basis. Voluntary organizations who wish to stand by the people and are in it for the long haul may also give this matter serious consideration.

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Summer, 2012. The marks of devastations caused by Aila, which struck back in 2009, are still lurking everywhere around the Sundarban. Though people were able to make repairs in their houses and somehow manage, their agriculture took a huge toll. At many places, salt water from the sea has entered into the crop fields and got stuck there due to poor drainage — making the soil absolutely infertile for a couple of years. Ploughing and farming haven’t returned to the island, though three years have passed since Aila pulverized the region. Paddy seeds sowed on the fields filled with stagnant saline water are giving rise to saplings with anomalies. Roots of these saplings are not growing deep underneath the surface. Though salts have faded away from the primary layer, it is still present in the layers below.

It’s during this time that I received an invitation from Dayapur, a small village located in the remote island of Satjelia of Gosaba block. A local club from the area invited me to be a speaker at a conference whose agenda involves global warming and climate change. I had the responsibility to explain to a bunch of rustic fishermen how global warming and climate change are affecting the people of Sundarban. Now I always carried a strong distaste for the idea of having a conversation behind closed doors, in a very trivial, seminar-like manner — compiled with tedious facts and figures. But when I get an opportunity to talk and interact with simple rural folks, I never let that chance go waste!

Anyways, this isn’t the right place to talk about the ‘conference’……

Various sorts of music performances were done in that conference, along with a few lecture sessions. While sitting at the stage and listening to lectures given by other distinguished guests, I noticed a couple of tarpaulins lying below the wooden stage. At the middle of the tarpaulin, I could see the word ‘UNICEF’ written quite distinctly, along with its world-famous logo! Needless to say, I was quite surprised.

The next morning, a small discussion was going on over a cup of tea at a local tea joint. Gradually many localites started joining the discussion. Among them, a person came forward and after a few rounds of conversation, I get to know from him that he constructed the last night’s stage; he is the only decorator living in that village. Out of curiosity, I asked him where he found the tarpaulins with UNESCO emblem. It was time for me to be surprised again — he bought them for Rs. 200-250 apiece from the villagers. Yes, these tarpaulins were provided by the UNICEF team to the villagers who lost their homes to the cyclone. After two years, the degree of misfortune remained the same, but the value for such tarpaulins decreased. Season after season, without the lands being ploughed, there rose demand for cash money and crops. So, they were forced to sell these UNICEF-sponsored tarpaulins to the decorator for such a meagre amount.

Such an incident though looks insignificant at plain sight, speak of a crucial side of natural disaster-affected islands of the Sundarban; of the regions development curve. The spotlight on Sundarban falls only when the region faces any natural calamity. Then numerous NGOs and people come forward to help the unfortunate people of the islands and provide foods, monetary assistance, etc. After a few days, the interest of the general public and these organizations slowly fades away. Even the nature of demand of the villagers change over time; people who could take care of such demands and solve their issues slowly disappear with time as well.

Just a few of months ago, super cyclone Amphan went through the islands of the Sundarban, destroying almost everything that came across its path. The overall volume of relief commodities sent to the Sundarban is quite larger than that of previous times. Rice, pulses, soya beans, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, etc. were included in this relief program.

But after three months since that incident, do you think the demands of every person who was badly affected by that disaster, got fulfilled? It is very hard to trace even a few individual or organization, barring one or two, who keep a track of such demands regularly. If we investigate meticulously, we will find that most of the earthen houses which were demolished by the wind have been erected again in the same fashion, without proper support to withstand severe winds.

The region is waiting anxiously for another massive-scale calamity and post-destruction reliefs. If we don’t consider thinking of any long-term development, the end result of all the reliefs, all the aids sent to the people here would ultimately be like the tarpaulins of UNICEF — misused and squandered.

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Summer, 2012. The marks of devastations caused by Aila, which struck back in 2009, are still lurking everywhere around the Sundarban. Though people were able to make repairs in their houses and somehow manage, their agriculture took a huge toll. At many places, salt water from the sea has entered into the crop fields and got stuck there due to poor drainage — making the soil absolutely infertile for a couple of years. Ploughing and farming haven’t returned to the island, though three years have passed since Aila pulverized the region. Paddy seeds sowed on the fields filled with stagnant saline water are giving rise to saplings with anomalies. Roots of these saplings are not growing deep underneath the surface. Though salts have faded away from the primary layer, it is still present in the layers below.

It’s during this time that I received an invitation from Dayapur, a small village located in the remote island of Satjelia of Gosaba block. A local club from the area invited me to be a speaker at a conference whose agenda involves global warming and climate change. I had the responsibility to explain to a bunch of rustic fishermen how global warming and climate change are affecting the people of Sundarban. Now I always carried a strong distaste for the idea of having a conversation behind closed doors, in a very trivial, seminar-like manner — compiled with tedious facts and figures. But when I get an opportunity to talk and interact with simple rural folks, I never let that chance go waste!

Anyways, this isn’t the right place to talk about the ‘conference’……

Various sorts of music performances were done in that conference, along with a few lecture sessions. While sitting at the stage and listening to lectures given by other distinguished guests, I noticed a couple of tarpaulins lying below the wooden stage. At the middle of the tarpaulin, I could see the word ‘UNICEF’ written quite distinctly, along with its world-famous logo! Needless to say, I was quite surprised.

The next morning, a small discussion was going on over a cup of tea at a local tea joint. Gradually many localites started joining the discussion. Among them, a person came forward and after a few rounds of conversation, I get to know from him that he constructed the last night’s stage; he is the only decorator living in that village. Out of curiosity, I asked him where he found the tarpaulins with UNESCO emblem. It was time for me to be surprised again — he bought them for Rs. 200-250 apiece from the villagers. Yes, these tarpaulins were provided by the UNICEF team to the villagers who lost their homes to the cyclone. After two years, the degree of misfortune remained the same, but the value for such tarpaulins decreased. Season after season, without the lands being ploughed, there rose demand for cash money and crops. So, they were forced to sell these UNICEF-sponsored tarpaulins to the decorator for such a meagre amount.

Such an incident though looks insignificant at plain sight, speak of a crucial side of natural disaster-affected islands of the Sundarban; of the regions development curve. The spotlight on Sundarban falls only when the region faces any natural calamity. Then numerous NGOs and people come forward to help the unfortunate people of the islands and provide foods, monetary assistance, etc. After a few days, the interest of the general public and these organizations slowly fades away. Even the nature of demand of the villagers change over time; people who could take care of such demands and solve their issues slowly disappear with time as well.

Just a few of months ago, super cyclone Amphan went through the islands of the Sundarban, destroying almost everything that came across its path. The overall volume of relief commodities sent to the Sundarban is quite larger than that of previous times. Rice, pulses, soya beans, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, etc. were included in this relief program.

But after three months since that incident, do you think the demands of every person who was badly affected by that disaster, got fulfilled? It is very hard to trace even a few individual or organization, barring one or two, who keep a track of such demands regularly. If we investigate meticulously, we will find that most of the earthen houses which were demolished by the wind have been erected again in the same fashion, without proper support to withstand severe winds.

The region is waiting anxiously for another massive-scale calamity and post-destruction reliefs. If we don’t consider thinking of any long-term development, the end result of all the reliefs, all the aids sent to the people here would ultimately be like the tarpaulins of UNICEF — misused and squandered.

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Summer, 2012. The marks of devastations caused by Aila, which struck back in 2009, are still lurking everywhere around the Sundarban. Though people were able to make repairs in their houses and somehow manage, their agriculture took a huge toll. At many places, salt water from the sea has entered into the crop fields and got stuck there due to poor drainage — making the soil absolutely infertile for a couple of years. Ploughing and farming haven’t returned to the island, though three years have passed since Aila pulverized the region. Paddy seeds sowed on the fields filled with stagnant saline water are giving rise to saplings with anomalies. Roots of these saplings are not growing deep underneath the surface. Though salts have faded away from the primary layer, it is still present in the layers below.

It’s during this time that I received an invitation from Dayapur, a small village located in the remote island of Satjelia of Gosaba block. A local club from the area invited me to be a speaker at a conference whose agenda involves global warming and climate change. I had the responsibility to explain to a bunch of rustic fishermen how global warming and climate change are affecting the people of Sundarban. Now I always carried a strong distaste for the idea of having a conversation behind closed doors, in a very trivial, seminar-like manner — compiled with tedious facts and figures. But when I get an opportunity to talk and interact with simple rural folks, I never let that chance go waste!

Anyways, this isn’t the right place to talk about the ‘conference’……

Various sorts of music performances were done in that conference, along with a few lecture sessions. While sitting at the stage and listening to lectures given by other distinguished guests, I noticed a couple of tarpaulins lying below the wooden stage. At the middle of the tarpaulin, I could see the word ‘UNICEF’ written quite distinctly, along with its world-famous logo! Needless to say, I was quite surprised.

The next morning, a small discussion was going on over a cup of tea at a local tea joint. Gradually many localites started joining the discussion. Among them, a person came forward and after a few rounds of conversation, I get to know from him that he constructed the last night’s stage; he is the only decorator living in that village. Out of curiosity, I asked him where he found the tarpaulins with UNESCO emblem. It was time for me to be surprised again — he bought them for Rs. 200-250 apiece from the villagers. Yes, these tarpaulins were provided by the UNICEF team to the villagers who lost their homes to the cyclone. After two years, the degree of misfortune remained the same, but the value for such tarpaulins decreased. Season after season, without the lands being ploughed, there rose demand for cash money and crops. So, they were forced to sell these UNICEF-sponsored tarpaulins to the decorator for such a meagre amount.

Such an incident though looks insignificant at plain sight, speak of a crucial side of natural disaster-affected islands of the Sundarban; of the regions development curve. The spotlight on Sundarban falls only when the region faces any natural calamity. Then numerous NGOs and people come forward to help the unfortunate people of the islands and provide foods, monetary assistance, etc. After a few days, the interest of the general public and these organizations slowly fades away. Even the nature of demand of the villagers change over time; people who could take care of such demands and solve their issues slowly disappear with time as well.

Just a few of months ago, super cyclone Amphan went through the islands of the Sundarban, destroying almost everything that came across its path. The overall volume of relief commodities sent to the Sundarban is quite larger than that of previous times. Rice, pulses, soya beans, clothes, medicines, sanitary napkins, etc. were included in this relief program.

But after three months since that incident, do you think the demands of every person who was badly affected by that disaster, got fulfilled? It is very hard to trace even a few individual or organization, barring one or two, who keep a track of such demands regularly. If we investigate meticulously, we will find that most of the earthen houses which were demolished by the wind have been erected again in the same fashion, without proper support to withstand severe winds.

The region is waiting anxiously for another massive-scale calamity and post-destruction reliefs. If we don’t consider thinking of any long-term development, the end result of all the reliefs, all the aids sent to the people here would ultimately be like the tarpaulins of UNICEF — misused and squandered.

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