Building Capacity of Local Media to Facilitate Intersectoral Action for Health in the Sundarbans, West Bengal

Tiger atmospheres and co-belonging in mangrove worlds

“…This watery commons is shared with wading migratory birds, pelicans, the Oliver Ridley Turtle, the Gangetic Dolphin, the Irrawaddy Dolphin, River Terrapin (Batagur baska), langurs, otters, civets and the saltwater crocodile who face the Sixth Mass Extinction event, but lack the charisma of the tiger who symbolises national pride. Biodiversity loss in this ‘major climatic hotspot’ that is affected by sea level rise, erratic rainfall, floods and tropical cyclones is governed by western frameworks of nature and wildlife conservation practices with a fixed agenda advanced by urban elites, the World Bank, UNESCO, the World Wildlife Fund, local NGOs, the Ministry of Local and Rural Development, Bangladesh and the Sundarban Development Board, India (Ghosh et al, 2018:1; Government of Bangladesh, 2017; Government of India, 2002). International non-government organisations (INGOs) and nation states take pride in coordinating tiger conservation programs and highlight the ‘problem’ of climate change in the largest mangrove delta in the world, but they rarely focus on everyday effects such as increasing salinity that affects the availability of fresh drinking water crucial for tiger and human survival.…”

“…In Bangladesh, the habitat of the tiger is protected through the demarcation of the Sundarban Reserve Forests (SRF) and in India through the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve Program (Bushra, 2019; Ghosh et al, 2018). Through conservation practices including the electronic tracking of tiger mobilities, 202 tigers were estimated to be inhabiting the Sundarbans in 2019, of which 114 were in Bangladesh and 88 in India (Khan, 2020; NTCA, 2019).…”

“…As Author 1 and tourists from the Sundarban Tiger Camp in India board a boat at Waxpol Ghat, Dayapur and sail slowly along the rippling Gosaba river as well as narrow tidal inlets on a wintry January morning in 2016, Kalyan a tourist guide who grew up in the Sundarbans narrated many stories. Stories of crocodiles and tigers, spiritual beings as well as Sir Daniel Mckinnon, a Scottish settler and activist who aimed to establish a utopia that focused on equality and justice (Ghosh et al, 2018).…”

“…In this article, encounters and stories privilege those identified as inferior in colour ( nimnoborno ), caste ( nimnonborgo ) and religion including displaced and dispossessed Dalits (former untouchables), Adivasis (Indigenous peoples such as Oraons, Mundas and Midnapuris), low-caste Hindus, Muslims and Christians. We seek to move beyond frames that continue to emphasise their low literacy level, position below the poverty line and limited access to basic infrastructure such as sanitation, electricity and water (Ghosh et al, 2018; Bushra, 2019). Their ecological intimacies with mangrove worlds and their heightened attunement to the tiger as a sentient subject can be valued in ways that might provide more than precarious employment in state tourism and forest departments.…”

Non‐Traditionalmaritime security threats in the Indian Ocean Region: Policy alternatives

“…The sea level rise leads to intrusion of seawater to agricultural lands close to the coasts and it causes salinization, which distresses food security. Because of salinization, Sundarbans delta has become an epicenter of depleting resources, and it undergoes varied patterns of fresh water availability (Ghosh, Bose, & Bramhachari, 2018). Rise in sea levels and subsequent salinization results in loss of soil fertility, which has socio‐economic consequences, due to the diminution in agricultural productivity and hike in food prices (Dawar, Bhat, & Aswani, 2020).…”