The tiger-chasing superman of 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
T
South 24 Paraganas, West Bengal
|FRI, NOV 26, 2021
Stories from the Sundarbans
In the vast Sundarbans tract of West Bengal, the land, lives and livelihoods are closely intertwined with rivers, forests and marshes. It’s a region unlike any other – in its climate, culture and challenges. And in its stories. Read these here, on PARI – stories of honey-gatherers and prawn-farmers, women widowed by tigers, of cyclones and villages washed away by rising waters, of hardly any healthcare or schools, of migration and mythology, worship and worry, sorrow and songs – stories of struggle and of human spirit and resilience
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In Sunderbans, women feel the heat
As the main workers on boat cruises in the Sunderbans, women battle a myriad health issues brought on by rising heat in the region
April 29, 2025 | Ritwika Mitra
You’ve got mail!
Letters to and from Satjelia come to the 80-year-old post office which still operates out of a mud hut
December 23, 2024 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Beyond disaster and wildlife in the Sundarbans
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
November 6, 2023 | Urvashi Sarkar
Hunting for crabs in the shadow of the Bengal tiger
Pushed deeper into the mangrove forests by shrinking catch in the river, fisherwomen in the Sunderbans work in constant fear of tiger attacks
June 17, 2023 | Urvashi Sarkar
Ma Bonbibi’s pala gaan under threat
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
March 27, 2023 | Ritayan Mukherjee
‘I didn’t want others to know I had miscarried’
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
March 10, 2022 | Urvashi Sarkar
‘I have to leave Ghoramara, but why should I?’
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
November 22, 2021 | Abhijit Chakraborty
Performing the snake goddess in Sundarbans
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
October 18, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
'We climbed on trees to save our lives'
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
June 9, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
In the Sundarbans, a tiger-shadowed wedding
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
January 4, 2021 | Ritayan Mukherjee
The slowly disappearing students of Sundarbans
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
October 10, 2020 | Sovan Daniary
In the Sundarbans, taken by a storm
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
August 1, 2020 | Sovan Daniary
When the water chased people like a mad bull
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
June 3, 2020 | Ritayan Mukherjee
Sundarbans: Mousani eats better in lockdown
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
April 5, 2020 | Abhijit Chakraborty
Bridge over troubled squatters
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
December 12, 2019 | Smita Khator
Sundarbans: ‘Not a blade of grass grew…’
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
September 10, 2019 | Urvashi Sarkar
A fishy catch-22 in the Bay of Bengal
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
May 29, 2019 | Neha Simlai
Slow train, hard work, low wages, long days
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
December 28, 2018 | Urvashi Sarkar
'Whatever we grow, we suffer losses'
Farmers from the Sundarbans, in Delhi for the November 29-30 march, speak of their problems and hopes
November 30, 2018 | Namita Waikar and Samyukta Shastri
Chasing bees from Bengal to Chhattisgarh
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
October 15, 2018 | Purusottam Thakur
‘Our houses are vanishing. Nobody cares’
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
July 20, 2018 | Urvashi Sarkar
Widowed by tigers, abandoned by 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
October 12, 2017 | Urvashi Sarkar
‘Maach and chaash brought us to Sundarbans’
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
April 10, 2017 | Urvashi Sarkar
From river to plate: the journey of the Sundarbans tiger prawn
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
January 11, 2017 | Urvashi Sarkar
Songs of the Sundarbans
The songs and dance by the Santal, Munda, Oraon and Ho preserve their languages and bring in an income
December 16, 2016 | Urvashi Sarkar
The sting of bees and the tyranny of tigers
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
September 23, 2016 | Urvashi Sarkar
‘In emergencies we are really stranded’
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
August 3, 2016 | Urvashi Sarkar
Ferries, fish, tigers and tourism
All in a day's work on Bali island in the Sundarbans, in West Bengal's South 24 Parganas district
June 22, 2016 | Mahesh Ramchandani
Land of eighteen tides and one goddess
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
June 21, 2016 | Malay Dasgupta
Voting in a Sundarbans village
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
May 19, 2016 | Urvashi Sarkar
Ma Bonbibi, mother to humans and tigers
The jungle goddess of the Sundarbans in West Bengal demands that Hindus and Muslims unite in upholding her pact with the animal kingdom
April 16, 2016 | Shatarupa Bhattacharyya
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