Surrounded by Sundarban

In Calcutta, the very mention of the Sundarban, the massive mangrove forest that straddles the India-Bangladesh frontier, ignites immediate conversations about a broad range of wildlife – the Royal Bengal Tiger, crocodiles, rare birds – as well as the ecotourism potential that the area holds. But it hardly ever motivates any discussion, or even mention, of the 4.3 million people that make the Indian side of this deltaic area alone their home. And while international concern spiked last year following the November destruction of roughly 40 percent of the Sundarban within Bangladesh by Cyclone Sidr, much of that outflow of emotion, and money, again went in the direction of the area's famed wildlife. Meanwhile, the traditional economic activities undertaken by the Sundarban's human inhabitants, such as the collection of honey and nipah-tree products, have been banned in Bangladesh this year, out of deference to the ecological damage wrought by the storm.

In the hopes of going beneath the headlines (or lack thereof), this writer recently travelled to an island in the West Bengal Sundarban, to visit a few of the villages there. After travelling by train and auto-rickshaw, we arrived at Raidighi, the headquarters for Mathurapur-II block of South 24 Parganas District. We had lunch at a small hotel, where the server continuously urged us to take more rice, daal and vegetables, all at no extra price. I wondered how long such hospitality would remain in this backwater, as yet untouched by hardcore capitalist logic.