A community tourism venture in the Sunderbans

A balancing act
Leong Siok Hui, The Star 31 Oct 09;

Home to the rare Bengal tigers, India’s Sunderbans unveils a community tourism venture that protects the endangered man-eaters whilst giving locals an alternative livelihood.

Singing in Bengali, the young boy’s voice pierced the balmy evening air, accompanied by the soothing rhythms of the harmonium and tabla. His singing was so heartrending, I got goose-pimples.

This performance tells the story of Bonobibi, the goddess of the forest, who protects the honey and wood gatherers from the ferocious half-tiger demon Dokkhin Rai. But the “law of the forest” stipulates that you have to go into the forest empty-handed and with a pure heart, and not take out too much.

It’s a classic tale about the tenuous co-existence between the settlers and man-eaters set on a grand stage — the Sunderbans in India’s West Bengal region.

Tourism and conservation

Wild Asia’s Dr Reza Azmi, videographer Emran Taib and I enjoyed this performance at the Sunderbans Jungle Camp (SJC) during a four-day stay. SJC, a community tourism project on Sunderbans’ Bali Island, is one of the winners of Wild Asia’s Responsible Tourism Awards 2009.

The SJC provides room-and-board plus river cruise packages for tourists visiting the Sunderbans National Park.

Opened in 2003, the SJC is a collaboration between local NGO Bali Nature & Wildlife Conservation Society (BNWCS) and Siliguri-based outdoor operator Help Tourism. Help Tourism funds the project and trains the guides and staff. BNWCS helps co-manage the lodge and community programmes.

Locals cook and maintain the 10 cottages while local boatmen take guests on daily cruises. Tourism income also supports social and community projects like free kindergarten, college scholarships, free healthcare and mangrove replanting projects.

The mighty rivers of Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna flow into the Bay of Bengal to form the largest delta in the world and carve out this vast archipelago of islands called the Sunderbans. Straddling the India-Bangladesh border, the Sunderbans is a Unesco World Heritage Site. Forty percent of the Sunderbans sits in India while the rest is in Bangladesh.

Cloaked by impassably dense mangrove forests, the uninhabited islands make up the largest mangrove forest in the world. Locals believe the name “Sunderbans” (or Sundarbans) is derived from the mangrove species, Sundari (Heriteria minor).

The big cats

Taking up about one third of the Sunderbans (2,585 sq km), 10 times the size of Kuala Lumpur, is the Tiger Reserve, home to the largest population of Royal Bengal tigers (Panthera tigris tigris) in India. The last census estimated about 270 tigers are still found in the Indian Sunderbans. To date, the tiger population in India’s 27 tiger reserves stands at about 1,411, making it home to the world’s largest tiger population in the wild (National Tiger Conservation Authority).

The Sunderbans’ big cats are adept swimmers and live on Chital deer, wild boar, rhesus macaque, fish and crabs.

But their penchant for pouncing on local fishermen and honey gatherers or straying into villages results in an uneasy relationship between man and cats.

People began settling in the Sunderbans in the early 1900s and after the Partition of India in 1947. Today, about 4.5 million inhabit 54 islands on the fringes of the tiger reserve and national park.

Bali Island is a lovely quilt of emerald-green padi fields dotted with thatched mud houses. Four-metre high, man-made mud dykes border the island and hold back the tide. There’s no electricity, piped water or paved roads.

The bucolic setting belies the precarious existence of the people’s lives.

“Before tourism, your choices were either farming, fishing or hunting,” says Bali-born Anil Krisha Mistry, a poacher-turned-conservationist and the founder of BNWCS.

“Farmers rely on rainwater and the sturdy embankment to protect their crops. Honey gatherers and hunters are exposed to tigers, cobras and crocodiles when they forage in the forest,” explains Mistry, 41.

The islanders are also subjected to nature’s wrath a few times a year when cyclones pummel the Sunderbans and inundate the islands with seawater.

In the worst disaster in recent memory, Cyclone Aila pounded the delta last May. Millions of people were made homeless, thousands of cattle drowned and farms were flooded. In some of the remote islands, medical and food relief didn’t arrive until days later.

Yet, the people’s resilience was amazing. They picked up the pieces and rebuilt their lives.

The Camp experience

On our visit, four months after the cyclone, Bali Island looked as good as new. The wide smiles were a heart-warming sign.

The camp is smack in the middle of the village and it’s hard to discern where the lodge starts and ends. Mud-finished cottages look out onto a landscaped garden where butterflies hover above red and pink blooms and birds flit from tree to tree.

A “public” pathway passes the dining hall, an open-air thatched wooden hut, making it perfect for people watching. In the mornings, kids on their way to school shuffle past. Local women in their Technicolour sari with empty water on their waists, sashay to the lodge’s tube well. The tube wells scattered around the village are the main source of water.

Powered by a generator and solar panels, the lodge’s electricity supply is restricted to a few hours a day. Fans keep the room cool and guests can request for a bucket of hot water for a bath. Biodegradable, Ayurvedic soaps and lightweight, traditional homespun cotton towels are supplied to guests. Locals believe the quick-dry towels are good for blood circulation.

Drinking water comes from a large jar to minimise usage of plastic bottles. Waste is segregated, reused or recycled, and organic wastes are turned into compost. A ladies’ self-help group provides laundry service for a small fee.

One of the highlights of our stay was the delectable home-cooked Bengali dishes served by local cook, Prankrishna Mandal.

Using the region’s specialities — fish, crab and prawns — Mandal whipped up tasty crab curries, fried fish marinated in a blend of turmeric, onion and ginger paste, and scrumptious dhal, capati and stir-fries. Other than coffee, tea and condensed milk, most of the food is sourced locally.

The locally farmed organic rice is delicious. An initiative by Help Tourism, the rice is produced, harvested and packaged by self-help groups and farmers. It is priced higher than the regular rice, and the premium goes back to a community development fund. The organic practice also helps reduce chemical pollution and improve the environment.

Grey skies and downpours accompanied us throughout our stay.

But on our third day, the sun peeked out and we set out for a half-day river cruise. As we glided along the lush mangrove forest, we spotted chital deer, a crocodile sunbathing on the mud bank and a monitor lizard scurrying away.

About 230-odd bird species have been sighted in the Sunderbans. We were lucky to spot the Brown-winged, Collared and Common Kingfisher, Black-headed tern and Lesser adjutant among others.

We looked hard and long, hoping to glimpse the orange and brown-striped creature lurking behind the dense mangrove.

But alas, the mighty Bengal tigers eluded us.

On our final evening, the local cultural troupe enthralled us with their interpretation of Bonobibi’s legend.

Locals still pray to Bonobibi before they venture into the wild. But the traditional theatre is no longer performed in public, except during the annual Bonobibi puja (ritual). Help Tourism encouraged the villagers to revive the tradition by funding the costumes and musical instruments.

It was a fitting end to our stay in the intriguing Sunderbans. Perhaps, we’ll have better luck with the big cats next time.