Bleak future

PARTNERS in peril is a film on the life of the people living in the Sundarbans and the state of resources in the area. Sundarbans is the only mangrove tiger land in the world. The present population of the tiger is estimated to be around 250. The tigers are the main cause of the deaths of many people in this region. The film dispels the romantic "wild and wonderful" image that tourists have of the Sundarbans. It higlights the environmental degradation taking place in the Sundarbans and analyses the causative factors.

Human settlement in the Sundarbans started about 200 years ago. Over the years the human population has increased there are now about 3.5 million people living there. However, the area for cultivation has remained the same over the years. This has resulted in abject poverty among the people in the area. About 50 per cent of the agricultural labour is landless. Moreover, productivity of the land is low. None of the fish caught is used for local consumption it is sold through contractors for consumption in other parts of India as well as abroad. And it is precisely this that is forcing the inhabitants to turn towards the forest for livelihood or prawn seed procurement from the waters. While entering the forest is fraught with danger, both activities have serious environmental implications.

In spite of the frequency of attack by tigers on the humans in the area, the activity of entering the forest for netting fish continues. The other choice left to the landless people is catching prawn seed. In the early stage of its life cycle, prawns migrate for a short while to the waters in the Sundarbans, where they are caught and sold to prawn cultivators. At least 50,000 families depend on prawn cultivation. This has resulted in prawn seeds becoming scarce. To what alternatives will the poor people turn to when the seeds run out, remains an unanswered question.

The film predicts a bleak outlook for the future of the Sundarbans. Forests are being cleared for aquaculture farms irrespective of the environment implications of soil salinity and ground water salinity in addition to the loss of forests. It talks of political interference in allotting land for aquaculture and the lack of awareness among the local inhabitants about the importance of forests and the need for conservation.

The film is an eye opener for people interested in gaining information on the Sundarbans. Though there are some interviews with the local inhabitants and a school teacher, Tushar Kangi, who has lived in the Sundarbans, the film would have had an even greater impact if more people from the state administration, forest department, the common man and concerned ngos were interviewed.

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