Stories from the Sundarbans

Reports of tiger attacks on humans in the Sundarbans do reach the mainland. But those who save the two and four-legged creatures from each other remain invisible. Here’s the story of one such unsung hero

As the main workers on boat cruises in the Sunderbans, women battle a myriad health issues brought on by rising heat in the region

Letters to and from Satjelia come to the 80-year-old post office which still operates out of a mud hut

Jyotirindra Narayan Lahiri’s quarterly publication 'Sudhu Sundarban Charcha' talks about the world’s largest mangroves in ways that defy mainstream media’s stereotypes around this region

Pushed deeper into the mangrove forests by shrinking catch in the river, fisherwomen in the Sunderbans work in constant fear of tiger attacks

Bonbibi pala gaan is among the many musical dramas performed by locals in the Sundarbans. Falling incomes have pushed many to migrate, leading to a dearth of artists to enact this folk theatre

Their river water is more saline, the summers hotter, and accessible public healthcare is a distant dream. These factors together have trapped women in a maze of health problems in the Sundarbans

In the Sundarbans, people of Ghoramara island are still reeling from the destruction left by Cyclone Yaas. While many are trying to restore their homes and livelihoods, some have been forced to move out

Farmers and labourers from Rajat Jubilee village in West Bengal come together to perform the Manasa pala gaan, a traditional musical play dedicated to the snake goddess – and keep rural theatre alive

Cyclone Yaas brought Mousuni's lands underwater on May 26, a year after Amphan had hit the Sundarbans. PARI visited the island and found people saving what they could of their damaged homes and livelihoods

Priyanka Mondal recently got married in the Sundarbans' Rajat Jubilee village amid memories of her father, Arjun Mondal, whose death in a tiger attack in 2019 has left his family struggling with sorrow and finances

The odds are stacked against schooling in villages here – recurring cyclones, growing salinity that hits farming and fishing, the lockdown – all add to drop-out rates, early marriages and students seeking work

Many have left their villages in the Sundarbans in recent years after floods and cyclones have taken away their land, homes and livelihoods – Amphan, in the midst of the lockdown, was the fourth in two decades

In the Sundarbans in West Bengal, Cyclone Amphan came atop the Covid-19 lockdown. PARI visited the region and found widespread destruction of trees, houses and utilities – and of people’s already-frayed livelihoods

A small, remote island in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, which has endured many disasters, is relying on its own resources to make it through the Covid-19 crisis and lockdown

A month after the decades-old Tallah basti in north Kolkata was demolished to make way for bridge repairs, the families who were shunted out to transit sheds continue to seek fair rehabilitation

People in the Sundarbans of West Bengal, for long living on the edge, are now facing climate change – recurring cyclones, erratic rain, growing salinity, rising heat, depleting mangroves and more

Fish workers, who camp on uninhabited islands in the Bay of Bengal for seasonal fishing, say with the fish depleting, water becoming inert and big trawlers taking over, they may be forced to leave

Many women domestic workers travel every day from faraway stations on the fringes of the Sundarbans to south Kolkata. The crush of the long train journey adds to the demands of their ceaseless workdays

Farmers from the Sundarbans, in Delhi for the November 29-30 march, speak of their problems and hopes

Honey harvesters from the Sundarbans are sometimes called to various states to remove large bee nests from buildings. Their payment is the honey, which they then sell – as this group is doing in Dhamtari district

For decades, villagers from Ghoramara island in the Sundarbans have been migrating to Sagar island because the river and rain keep washing away their houses. They have received little help from the state

Every year, estimates indicate, around 100 men are killed by tigers in the Sundarbans. A bureaucratic maze then disallows their widows from getting compensation, forcing them to live in distress and penury

Flood, famine, Partition, riots, and the promise of land and jobs drove early migrations to the Sundarbans. The settlers then battled disease, hunger and attacks by tigers, but eventually found a home

For village women in the Sundarbans, collecting tiger prawn seedlings is unrewarding and unsavoury work – though the delicacy fetches high prices for others later along the supply chain

The songs and dance by the Santal, Munda, Oraon and Ho preserve their languages and bring in an income

The ‘mouleys’ or honey collectors of the Sundarbans work without safeguards in dense and dangerous jungles – encountering crocodiles, tigers and the diktats of the Forest Department

Falling ill in the Sundarbans is a gamble. With difficult terrain, only a handful of healthcare centres and few doctors, the people turn to mobile medical units or other long-distance options – usually at great cost

All in a day's work on Bali island in the Sundarbans, in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district

A documentary that looks at how the blended mythologies of Ma Bonbibi and Dakshinrai aid the coexitence of humans, nature and the wild in the Sundarbans

Despite the heat and distances, people of Rajat Jubilee and other villages of Gosaba block came to the poll booth on April 30. The counting of votes in West Bengal’s Assembly elections begins today, May 19

The jungle goddess of the Sundarbans in West Bengal demands that Hindus and Muslims unite in upholding her pact with the animal kingdom