The Sundarbans fishers coping in an overly stressed mangrove estuary Item Type monograph Authors Chacraverti, Santanu Publisher International Collective in Support of Fishworkers Download date 01/10/2021 02:51:57 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/1834/32692 SAMUDRA Monograph THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS Coping in an Overly Stressed Mangrove Estuary Santanu Chacraverti International Collective in Support of Fishworkers www.icsf.net SAMUDRA Monograph THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS Coping in an Overly Stressed Mangrove Estuary Santanu Chacraverti International Collective in Support of Fishworkers www.icsf.net SAMUDRA Monograph THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS Coping in an Overly Stressed Mangrove Estuary Author Santanu Chacraverti December 2014 Edited by Ishita Basu Layout by P Sivasakthivel Front Cover Preparing to cast Photo by Vishnu Narendran Printed at L S Graphics, Chennai Published by International Collective in Support of Fishworkers 27 College Road, Chennai 600 006, India Tel: +91 44 2827 5303 Fax: +91 44 2825 4457 Email: [email protected] www.icsf.net Copyright © ICSF 2015 ISBN 978 93 80802 34 3 While ICSF reserves all rights for this publication, any portion of it may be freely copied and distributed, provided appropriate credit is given. Any commercial use of this material is prohibited without prior permission. ICSF would appreciate receiving a copy of any publication that uses this publication as a source. The opinions and positions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the offi cial views of ICSF or of the supporting agencies. Contents Abbreviations ...................................................................................... vii Glossary of local terms ........................................................................ viii Author’s Foreword ............................................................................. xiii Acknowledgement .............................................................................. xv Nature of the sources .......................................................................... xvii Some of the questions posed to fi shers/crab-collectors .......... xix Focal themes discussed in the workshops ............................... xx CHAPTER I: THE SUNDARBANS FOREST AND REGION: PHYSICAL AND ECOLOGICAL FEATURES .............................. 1 The delta and the archipelago .................................................. 2 Ebb, fl ow, change ...................................................................... 5 Keeping out the fl ood ............................................................... 6 CHAPTER II: THE HISTORY OF HABITATION AND SETTLEMENT IN THE SUNDARBANS ....................................... 9 The Sundarbans frontier .......................................................... 10 East India Company and the forest ......................................... 13 To map, measure, and manage................................................. 13 Dampier and Hodges ................................................................. 15 Settlement .................................................................................. 15 CHAPTER III: THE DEMOGRAPHY OF THE SUNDARBANS 19 Population of the Sundarbans ................................................. 19 From 1911 to 2001 .................................................................... 19 The 2001 Population ................................................................. 20 Implications .............................................................................. 20 Fishers and Fisheries ................................................................. 22 SAMUDRA Monograph CHAPTER IV: THE FISHING COMMUNITY IN THE SUNDARBANS ........................................................................ 24 The missing (almost) history of the fi shing community in the Sundarbans ..................................................................... 24 The Present Fishing community in the SBR .......................... 28 Are all poor fi shers? ................................................................... 28 The deterrents to fi shing ............................................................. 28 Fishing nevertheless ................................................................... 29 The two sorts of fi shing .............................................................. 29 Counts and conjectures .............................................................. 30 Inland fi shing ............................................................................ 33 Falling back on Census 2011 ..................................................... 34 CHAPTER V: THE RISE OF MODERN FOREST GOVERNANCE IN INDIA ............................................................. 37 Forest destruction during the colonial era ............................. 37 The demand for conservation .................................................. 37 Forest legislation ....................................................................... 37 Forest Policy in Independent India ......................................... 39 The Forest Rights Act (FRA) ................................................... 40 CHAPTER VI: MODERN FOREST GOVERNANCE AND THE SUNDARBANS ............................................................. 41 Conservancy: Bengal lags behind ............................................ 41 The fi rst steps towards conservation ....................................... 41 Reservation comes to the Namkhana and Basirhat ranges ... 42 The Shrinking of the Sundarbans ........................................... 43 The Sundarbans Tigers ............................................................. 47 The rise of the Global Tiger ..................................................... 48 The STR regime and the Fishers .............................................. 55 Of fi nes and other affl ictions ................................................... 64 Prohibitions notwithstanding .................................................. 65 THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS iv SAMUDRA Monograph FRA in the Sundarbans? ........................................................... 65 Fishers fi shing in the non-STR Sundarbans Forest Areas ...... 68 Administering the SBR ............................................................. 69 Joint Forest Management (JFM) .............................................. 70 CHAPTER VII: FISHING COMMUNITY IN THE SUNDARBANS— BELIEFS AND KNOWLEDGE AS MEANS OF COPING ............ 73 Living and Knowing ................................................................. 73 Belief ....................................................................................... 74 Knowledge ................................................................................. 77 Of herbs ..................................................................................... 77 Knowledge Specifi c to Fishing ................................................. 78 Of Mud and Slush ..................................................................... 78 Of Tides and Times ................................................................... 79 The Lunar Day and Month ........................................................ 79 The Fisher’s Life, through a lunar month .................................... 79 The need to time the tide ............................................................ 81 Timing the tide—the general and the specifi c............................... 81 The Weather .............................................................................. 84 Navigation ................................................................................. 84 Finding the way ........................................................................ 85 Reading the water and listening to it ......................................... 86 Back to fi nding the way ............................................................. 87 In the Rivers .............................................................................. 88 Netting the fi sh ......................................................................... 89 The Nets .................................................................................... 90 Of boats and their making ....................................................... 92 Survival knowledge: Against kamot, kumir, bagh, and the forester ......................................................................... 93 Awareness and knowledge of resources, and the management thereof ....................................................................................... 96 v THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS SAMUDRA Monograph CHAPTER VIII: SOME REFLECTIONS ON THE FUTURE OF COPING ..................................................................... 99 Sundarbans on the map ............................................................ 99 The stressed SBR—placing it within the wider world ............ 99 Of empowerment as an ecological essential ............................ 101 Proposals .................................................................................... 103 Whither? .................................................................................... 106 ENDNOTES ...................................................................................... 107 APPENDIX I: LOCATIONS—FIELD VISITS, WORKSHOPS ...... 122 APPENDIX II: SBR: BASIC MAP AND CONCEPTUAL DIAGRAM ............................................................ 132 APPENDIX III: WOMEN FISHERS IN THE SUNDARBANS ..... 134 THE SUNDARBANS FISHERS vi SAMUDRA Monograph ABBREVIATIONS BLC Boat