[by Nora on Upside-Down] In a space when rivers meet the sea, and the hungry tides wash the lands in continuous rhythm, fishing seems to be the only alternative to survive in the hostile landscape that creates what today is known as the Sundarbans. But when tradition meets modernity, and the rule of conservation overcome the rituals and the customs of the forest dwellers, a conflict between people and state, human and animal arise in a very violent way in one of the most complex landscape of the world.

Sundarban is the immense archipelagos that lay between the sea and the land of Bengal, separated by national borders into India and Bangladesh side. The Indian Sundarbans stretches for more than three hundred kilometers, from the Hoogly river on the west to the Meghna river on the east, shaped by the biggest delta of the holiest river in the world, the Ganga.
This hostile but beautiful place, home of one of the largest mangrove forest of the world got declared as Bengal Tiger Reserve in 1973 and is a UNESCO World Heritage Centre since 1987. This famous place has attracted the attention of many wildlife enthusiasts, bringing the safeguards of species and the ecosystem in the forefront. The Bengal Tiger, the real protagonist of the place is protected and celebrated as the king of the Sundarbans, turning this harsh land into a famous touristic attraction, but also a violent conflict zone between people and state, human and tigers. The entire area hosts an almost forgotten population of about 4.5 million people, living in scattered, often remotely located islands, with poor access to basic facilities such as health, education, roads, sanitation, potable water and electricity.
Over the past two decades, once the mangrove forest became recognized as a protected area, the islanders started to loose access to their natural resources essential for their livelihood. As the salinity of the soil and the high possibilities of floods and storms renders agriculture unreliable or even impossible, fishing remained one of the most important sources of livelihood for the majority of people in the Sundarbans. But a new series of regulation and conservation policies, seem to have put under serious threat the same existence of the inhabitants of the Sundarbans As a result, fishing has become to be one of the most controversial activities forcing thousands of people to poverty and austerity.
Around 80% of the 4.5 million inhabitants of Sunderban depend on fishing for a source of livelihood. The most controversial regulation is the restriction of boats that have the right to fish in Sundarbans waters. Anukul Chandra Das, a fisherman from Sonagaon village from the main island of Gosaba, tells me about the debate around the Boat Licensing Certificates (BLC), the document that authorizes fishing activities. “I do not possess myself any BLC, hence to go fishing I need to rent it out for a price of about 30.000 or 32.000 per year. However, the number of BLCs are not enough for all of us and most of the people are struggling to go fishing, an activity which is crucial for our survival”. 923 licenses were issued in 1973 for the Sundarban Tiger Reserve area of 892.38 square kilometres, of which only 713 remain active – many permits lie obstructed in forest range offices or belong to dead people. This number sounds ridiculous for a population of roughly 4 million people; It is estimated that within the the 24 Parganas South District alone – called the down islands – the fisher folks families are of about 52.917. The majority of people are forced to go fishing without any permit, turning their traditional activity into an “illegal” one, risking everyday to get fined and harassed by the forest department.

The problem is that, although the ecosystem conservation policies need to be addressed, alternative livelihoods are not offered to the majority of the people, and many are forced everyday to risk their life in pursuing “illegal” activities for their sustenance. The prohibitive laws force the majority of fishermen to hide from the guards and go fishing in the most remote and harsh areas of the creek, where the guards are not able to reach. This puts their life at high risk and directly exposes them to tiger attacks.
Being attacked by tigers in the Sundarbans is very common and many widows of the islands can tell their stories. “We do not have any alternative other than die of hunger!” says Shankaro Arhil, a highly skilled and experienced fishermen and honey collector. He explains to me that the majority of people go fishing in a group of three or more so that if a tiger attacks, only one person will be killed; hence if one dies on this journey, the survivors are still able to help the misfortunate family to mitigate the loss. Whereas if the Forest Department catches their boat, all of them will go to jail, disrupting the life of 4 or more families.
While tigers have always been a menace for the islanders who keep their destiny in the hands of nature, ‘forest department with their unclear and unjust regulations and severity – claim the islanders – have become our most dangerous enemies, destroying the balance we, forest dwellers, have always had with our harsh mother nature’.
For those possessing a BLC things are slightly better, but the myriad of regulations makes their life and their activity almost impossible. For example, the renovation of a mandatory permission of 42 days of fishing is often problematic, and many people are unable to renew their permit due to the lack of accessibility to the Forest Range Office, making their life even tougher.

Unfortunately the Forest Department is not the only one taking advantage of these marginalized people. In a world of survival, everybody tries to get its own share. A net of mafia connects the fishers to the big market, ensuring from one side the selling of the product, while trapping the families in a life of debt on the other side. As most of the fishermen do not possess enough wealth to purchase all the equipment for fishing, a middleman, the Malik, works as intermediate between them and the owner, the so called Aratdars, the “big men” who give loans to the fishermen to carry on their activity. This basically ties them to one Aratdar, who plays the role of a moneylender and denies the fishermen access to fair market prices, forcing them to sell their catch or fish at a lower prices. “We are poor people and we need to take loans from the Aratdar, from whom we require at least 1 lack rupees; about 30/32 thousands rupees is for the rent of BLCs, and the rest for fishing equipment, boat repairs, etc.” comments Anukul. Every year if the fishermen do not pay their debt, the loan is carried on to the next year. This system leaves the fishers often indebted to the Aratdar for years on end.
To reclaim their rights on land and its natural resources, several local organizations are working today on spreading awareness on forest dwellers rights, to empower and encourage people to take action against a government whose interest lies more in tigers than in people. One leading organization, the Sunderban Janasramjibi Manch (SJM), is pushing for the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006, an act that grants legal recognition to the rights of traditional forest dwelling communities, ensuring the right of stay, use and protect of the forest land they inhabit since centuries, partially correcting the injustice caused by the forest laws. However the livelihood and threats of people go much beyond the simple implementation of this or another act. The interest of the state is far beyond the wellbeing of people. Thus, whereas the locals struggle for primary facilities, the government is instead interested in the implementation of aggressive tourism development plans, as the one in Jharkali, a five star project of about 400 rupees crore. High-class resorts, luxury boats and others attractions are already available for tourists who come here in high numbers and often without any respect for the environment, causing damages that can be much more of a threat for the Sundarbans.
The actual conservation policies and the numerous regulations carried out by the state, do impose rules which are by no means constructive neither for the people nor for the environment, that continues to be exploited by development plans and companies who never pay any fees to exploit the precious Sundarbans resources. While the forest department takes advantage of the vulnerability of the people, stealing money, goods, and harassing them for no reasons, a corrupted system of moneylenders take over what the state should really control: fair and regulated prices, and easy access to the market for their citizens. The threats for the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarbans are others, such as the pollution by developmental activities, including from industrial activities and sewage, It is critical to address these ‘non-fishing’, but high-impact, threats.

As the indian environmentalist A. Kothari observes, a desperate search for alternatives, ways to bring the interests of conservation and people’s livelihood rights together, is a necessary step to put an ends to the myriad of conflicts engendered by conservation policies. In the Sundarbans, “the beautiful forest”, conservation policies are now eroding the life of people everyday, as much as the sea erodes their lands; and while the terrain’s hostility sucks the people energy into the mud of the islands, the state squeezes them out and this will continue to be as long as the state thinks that these highly inhabited lands are “ better to return to nature and tigers”.

Posted on September 21, 2016