Global Studies PhD Swaroopa Lahiri published her article "Harsh life on an island" in The Telegraph. For the edited The Telegraph version, please click here.
Whose forest? Human-tiger encounters in Sunderban
Santosh Mondol used to go crab fishing with his wife, Asha Mondol, through the narrow creeks in the core area of Sunderban. One fine day, their boat was attacked by a Royal Bengal tiger that ruthlessly dragged Santosh’s body in front of Asha. No amount of shrieks deterred the resolute tiger. An inconsolable Asha spent the next 15-20 days at home mourning her husband’s untimely death and started looking for alternate livelihood opportunities such as agriculture. However, within a month or so, she returned to her old profession, a profession that had swallowed up her husband. In a matter of six months, Asha Mondol became a tiger victim herself.
In the Dayapur island of Sunderban, inhabited by approximately 4500 people, every third house has at least one family member who was killed by a tiger. The stories seldom differ from Santosh and Asha Mondol’s story – most, if not all, of the tiger victims were killed when they were out crab fishing illegally in the core zone. During high tide at night, the forest department’s yellow nylon fence nets are lifted and boats are stealthily rowed in the core area. As low tide approaches, water dries up in the narrow creeks and the fishermen anchor their boats. They wait in anticipation for the next cycle of high tide conducive to crab fishing. Tigers normally attack when the boats are anchored – in a few cases, since the creeks are narrow and the sides of the moving boats touch the banks of the forest, the tigers use the bank as a base to leap and catch their prey. Upon clutching their prey by the nape of their neck, the tiger immediately releases 2-3kg of saliva which makes the snatching away of the victim difficult due to the slipperiness of the body.
As per a few residents, in 2018, in a span of 8 to 10 days, 26 people were devoured by tigers. While this figure might be hyperbolic, it is indicative of the fact that tiger attacks are well and alive. Hence, the gnawing question then is what attracts the villagers to the perilous waters despite such an enormous threat to life? Contrary to what one might typically expect, crab fishing is not a profession reluctantly chosen due to the scarcity of alternate livelihoods. In fact, the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFMC) has set up self help groups with options such as poultry farming to wean people off “doing the forest” – a local terminology describing the activities of fishing and honey gathering in the forests. Greed, not basic needs, compels the villagers to consider selling crabs as a source of easy and substantial income. Crabs are caught in the three to four hours of high tide and a kilogram can yield up to Rs 400. A catch of 5kg will amount to a daily earning of Rs 2000. If instead, the villager decides to become a daily wage labourer, for example a construction worker or an agricultural worker, he will have to toil for 8-10 hours a day and earn Rs 250-300 at the end of the day. While this is almost one tenth of his income as a crab fisherman, there is four to five times more labour and hard work involved. The opportunity of making a handsome amount of money in very little time and with minimal physical effort presents crab fishing as a lucrative and irresistible option that often becomes an exciting gamble, bordering on addiction. One of the fishermen portrayed the practice as one where “prosperity was a magnet and death was a constant companion”.
The families of the victims of these attacks, notably the “tiger widows”, face financial setbacks in the aftermath. Since crab fishing in the core area is an illegal activity, the families are not entitled to any compensation from the forest department. At most, the officials can assist them in retrieving the remains of the body. The families of victims with private life insurance have little respite – the insurance agents are often corrupt and demand a hefty portion of the claim money as bribe to expedite paperwork and payout. Party politics is rampant too, influencing the process and amount of compensation as well as the recipients. Furthermore, the alternate livelihood, particularly agriculture, comes with its own set of risks and uncertainties. The relatively high salinity of water in Dayapur has rendered it suitable primarily for paddy monoculture. This poses two problems for the agricultural workers: rice sowing and harvesting are seasonal activities, leaving them with the burden of finding odd jobs in the other months of the year. Also, the crop is extremely susceptible to natural calamities such as flooding in monsoon. Floods ravage the fields within minutes and pour cold water over months of toil and the source of sustenance.
Honey collectors are another group that is subject to tiger attacks from time to time. They are less vulnerable to attacks however, due to the seasonal nature of the activity. The forest department distributes a small number of permits to individual honey collectors annually which have to be renewed each year. The number of permits is determined by the amount of honey the forest department would like to obtain and an informed estimate of the quantity each individual would ideally be able to provide. The honey collectors require private life insurance and their families receive an additional 2 lakh rupees as compensation from the forest department in the event of a tiger attack or any other on the job adversity. There is a local saying in Sunderban which is “where there is honey, there is the tiger”. Being intelligent creatures, tigers are known to lie in wait for humans near honeycombs. The forest department distributes masks to mitigate the incidence of attacks. The effectiveness of these masks is contested. Locals state that the masks initially succeeded in scaring off the tiger but gradually, upon careful observation, the flickering of the eyelids gave the game away. The tiger soon realized the real face/front of the humans due to the blinking of eyes and resumed its attack from the back.
The forest department estimates that there is a minimum of 100 tigers in Sunderban – the actual number is thought to be close to 130. The locals believe that this figure is an underestimation as the camera traps do not accurately capture the tigers that are on the move. Tracking of tigers has become more intensive in the recent years with a higher frequency of camera traps. A concoction of rotten mutton and egg is used as lure (due to its pungent smell) to the camera traps and a photo of one of the fangs of the tiger is recorded. The choice of fang has to be consistent since the appearance of the left and right fang of each tiger is different. In order to ensure a strict divide between the forest and the villages, the forest department started installing yellow nylon fence nets 5-7 years ago at the periphery of the core area. The colour yellow is of special significance. In addition to being the colour of fire, it jarringly stands out amidst the forest hues of greens and browns, signalling to the tiger the boundary of its habitat. The impact of these nets has been miraculous – the last three years have seen a dramatic drop in the number of straying tiger incidents. The only time when tigresses swim towards villages is during the littering season which coincides with the paddy harvesting period. In order to protect their cubs from jealous, male tigers on the prowl, the tigresses then seek refuge in the fields, occasionally seizing cattle or humans. Therefore, although the tiger attacks have soared in the recent past according to the villagers of Dayapur, there is a fundamental difference in the circumstances of the attacks: the tigers no longer intrude into villages; instead, the fishermen walk into the tiger’s lair.
The villagers unanimously agreed on one statement: the present day tigers are definitely more aggressive than their forefathers. Some feel that persistent man eating has emboldened the tiger – while previously a group of 5 people used to frighten the tiger, it no longer factors in the number of people on a boat before launching an attack. Others argue that the increase in the number of tigers, coupled with dwindling food sources triggers a belligerent attitude. The most original yet highly unlikely explanation came from a 78 year old man, Haripada Mondol, who had spent his entire life in Sunderban and claimed that in his youth, tigers would casually brush past people without any intention of attacking. He believed that in an attempt to deter people from frequenting the core area, the forest department officials had released powerful tigons into the forest.
Contrary to popular beliefs, the Royal Bengal tiger of Sunderban is not a natural man eater. However, its harsh habitat and quotidian struggle have made it remarkably adaptive and less finicky about its dietary preferences. Although its traditional prey is the wild boar, the Sunderban tiger feasts on everything in the forest: honey, crabs, fish and even birds - in fact, once a king cobra was found in the stomach of a dead tiger. One of my sources joked that the tiger would happily lap up mustard oil if it managed to lay its paws on it. Given this precarious alimentary situation, humans entering the core area become one of the easiest preys.
Apart from the threat of tigers, the residents of Dayapur battle a host of other problems as well. The island was among the hardest hit by the 2009 Cyclone Aila. Many people lost their homes and spent over six months on the road without even a polythene sheet over their heads. They waited in vain for assistance from the state government and NGOs. Till this date, NGO intervention in Dayapur has been minimal and arbitrary. Recovery has been a slow and tedious process. The education system is in a crisis. Formerly, the principals and the teachers stayed at the island and were visibly more dedicated and invested in the children’s education. Nowadays, as per state policy, transfer of teachers, vacant principal positions and high absenteeism rates are common. The daily journey from Kolkata to Sunderban tires the teachers and adversely affects their teaching capability. Another pressing issue is transportation. Sunderban is ruled by the tidal timetable. Ferry boats only venture out during high tide as they get stuck otherwise. The closest hospital from Dayapur is in Gosaba, around an hour by boat. In case of a medical emergency, in addition to the travelling time, tides become a factor as well as the season of the year. During monsoon, ferry boatmen only offer their services if they have a certain number of passengers to recover the fuel cost. The cost of reserving the boat is prohibitive for the common man. As an example, Biswajit Maity, an attendant at a tourist lodge, had to wait for five days to get a haircut as no boats were running to Gosaba due to heavy rain.
Sunderban has received international spotlight as a UNESCO heritage site and as the abode of the Royal Bengal tiger. Unfortunately, the human inhabitants of Sunderban, caught in the suffocating web of climate change, poverty and government apathy, have been largely overshadowed.
March 8, 2019 - 5:08pm