The Community

February 24, 2023

Sunderbans is not only a land of mangroves, rivers and tigers. It also homes to 6 million people in India. Though agriculture and fishery is the major livelihood here, a large portion of the people depends heavily on forest products to earn their bread. Continuous threats from cyclonic storms, salinity increase and changing rainfall patterns have made their lives a struggle for existence. Consequences are male migration leaving behind women headed households with children and elderly, the most vulnerable population of society. The famous phrase ‘a tiger on the land, a crocodile in the water’ has supposedly originated from this region. Life in these distant mangrove island villages is on the horns of a dilemma.