The Crisis of Transient Fishers in the Sundarbans

In 2012, I was working with the fishing communities of the Indian Sundarbans. During this time, I visited Namkhana Block, located in the southwestern part of the Indian Sundarbans aka Sundarban Biosphere Reserve. I was already familiar with the issue of evacuation of fishermen from the Island of Jambu. Prior to 2003, Jambu was one of the major dry fish production centers of West Bengal, India. Fishers from different parts of the Sundarbans used to come to Jambu to catch fish from the Bay of Bengal and dry that fish on the coast. Most of Jambu's fishermen were residents of Kakdwip Block whose ancestors migrated from present day Bangladesh in the 1950s, 60, and 70s. These migrant fishermen brought their culture and technique of behundi net fishing ( bag net fishing) and settled in the southwestern parts of the Indian Sundarbans. More precisely they settled in Bakkhali, Frasergunj, Namkhana, Kakdwip, and Sagar Island as these places provided ecological conditions similar to coastal areas in Bangladesh to practice behundi net fishing.


The evacuation of transient fishing communities from the Jambu compelled some people to leave their traditional occupation. These people migrated to Kolkata and other cites in India and took up odd jobs such as pulling rickshaws and working as a street vendor. Some fishermen looked for open space on the coast and ended up in coastal areas of Frasergunj. I met some of these fishermen involved in dry fish business at Paschim Amrabati Baliara Char and Lakshmipur Abad Char near Frasergunj. Most of the fishermen who come to Paschim Amrabati and Lakshmipur Abad are residents of Kakdwip, especially the fishermen who have relatively large fishing camps or shabars. For example, relatively well off fishermen from Kakdwip occupied 2-2.5 bigha land on the coast. However, this is small if we compare the shabar size on the Jambu Island. Previously, a well off fisherman on Jambu used to occupy 10-12 bigha of land to build a fishing camp. From the Aratdar (fish depot owner) and the Secretary of the Paschim Amrabati Baliara Char, I developed some idea about the scale of the shabar business. In the 2012-2013 fishing season the total number of shabars was 61 that occupied a total land area of 100-120 bigha. At least 5,000 people earned their livelihood from the fish drying occupation at Pashichim Amrabati Baliara Char. There was a sense of fear among these transient fishing communities that their age old occupation would be lost in future due to lack of suitable space on the coast and lack of labor. Lack of suitable coastal areas to build khunti or shabar and lack of skilled labor came up again again during our conversation at Frasergunj and Kalisthan. Also, the younger generation is not interested in dry fish business as they are aware of dwindling fish stock in the region, uncertainty of income, and loss of lives in the open sea during cyclones. The other reason is their aspiration to be engaged in occupations which would give them financial stability and respect. Currently, the western parts of the Indian Sundarbans is facing land loss due to increased amount of melt water from the Hiamalayan glaciers. All these physiographic and socio-economic factors may result in loss of a traditional livelihood in the Sundarabns unless the fishing communities demand more attention from the state government and the government, including the Fishery Department, takes some measures to protect shabar business in the coastal areas of West Bengal.

     A fishing trawler has reached the coast of Paschim Amrabati Baliara Char with catch

                        A typical khunti or shabar at Frasergunj, Namkhana, West Bengal

 Author: Priyanka Ghosh, University of Kentucky

My first visit to the Sundarbans

I first visited the Sundarbans in India in 2009. The Sundarbans is located in the lower Gangetic Delta, in West Bengal. More precisely, the region is located in two districts of West Bengal-- district South 24 Parganas and district North 24-Parganas. There are 19 Community Development Blocks in the Indian Sundarbans. My visit in summer of 2009 was part of my preliminary fieldwork for my PhD at the University of Kentucky. I still remember I reached Kolkata with a lot of excitements on May 27, just after the cyclone Aila devastated the region.On my way to Kolkata, I completed Amitav Ghosh's novel "The Hungry Tide." In my mind I kept reminding Rilkae's poem which Mr. Ghosh quoted in his novel:

we, who have always thought of joy

as rising.....feel the emotion

that almost amazes us

when a happy thing falls. 

Here, I should mention that I never had any opportunity to visit the Sundarbans before 2009. During my undergraduate and later in post-graduate, I traveled to the Himalayas as part of college and university programs. I never had any wish to visit the mangrove forests in the Sundarbans. Part of the reason is that probably I never realized the region or I was never curious about it. I became interested in the region and gradually fell in love with the lower Ganges delta while I was doing coursework at the University of Kentucky. As I started my own research on the region, I started developing an interest to visit the region. Finally, that came true in the summer of 2009. Although, summer is not an ideal time to do fieldwork in India, I had no choice. I had already completed my coursework at the university and summer was a good time to explore my possible research topic by visiting the region. People who are in geography or who have some experience of doing fieldwork in the discipline are aware of the fact that doing a fieldwork in geography, especially in human geography is not an easy task. Here, your work does not completely depend on you or on instruments rather on others' cooperation. So, building network with people who have same interests like you is an important homework. As a graduate student at the Kentucky, I was always told so. But I would say that building networking from abroad does not work well always. In fact it is pretty hard to do so when you are just a graduate student and not a faculty.I tried to build connections from the USA. For example, I sent an email to the director of the Kolkata WWF. I was delighted when I received a reply from Dr. Saswati Sen prior going to the field and visited her office later in Kolkata. However, networking was not at all easy before going to the field and I would say that it is okay if we can't establish connections before going to the field. In West Bengal, it always works better when you visit there in person and try to build networks after visiting. I thank my friend Sutapa for providing some NGO connection in the region via her mother.

In my first visit, I was accompanied by my friends Sonali and Debarati. We boarded an early morning train from Sealdah rail station in Kolkata and reached Canning.The distance between Kolkata and Canning is 42 km.After reaching Canning we crossed Matla river in a bhutbhuti --a traditional boat that runs by a diesel engine. Today, there is a bridge over Matla River and there are private vehicles such as "magic vans" that you can take to reach Godkhali. After getting down at Canning Station we followed the crowd towards the ferry ghat and took the bhutbhuti. We jostled through the crowd to catch a boat. Once you are on the boat and get a spot to sit, you are all set to have an amazing river cruising.

Crossing Matla River by bhutbhuti during the high tide

                                    

Here I am on the bank of Matla River, Summer 2009

After reaching Godkhali, we had to take another ferry to reach Gosaba Bazaar. In my first visit, my friends and I stayed in lodge Suryatapa. In the following two days, I was accompanied by two local residents from Gosaba, Tanmoy and Nikhil. Nikhil was the ex-General Secretary of the Sundarban Hazi Dasarat College or Pathankhali College, a local college in Gosaba. He introduced to local fishermen of Malo Para and I discussed some of the fishing related issues with them. In our two-day visit, we also went to see the ecotourism spots of Sajnekhali and Sudhanyakhali. Both are located within the buffer area of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve.We hired a tour guide and a mechanized boat from the Sajnekhali Forest Office and embarked on our exciting journey to learn the region's ecology. Although we watched some monkeys, fiddler crabs, and variety of kingfishers, we were not lucky enough to see an estuarine crocodile and the region's attraction Bengal Tiger. Finally, in the end of the day, we were truly happy to encounter an iguana at Sudhanyakhali. 

Encountering an Iguana at Sudhanyakhali

Author: Priyanka Ghosh, University of Kentucky

Red fiddler crab in the Sundarbans