A Reproach of Biotic Interference in Amitav Ghosh’s The ...projects, survey reports and...

A Reproach of Biotic Interference in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide P. Sasi Ratnaker

Assistant Professor Kallam HaranadhaReddy Institute of Technology,

Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. &

Dr. N. Usha Srinivas Associate Professor Krishna University, Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Abstract:

It is in Sunderbans, the frontier of Indian subcontinent stretching into Bangladesh where Amitav Ghosh centers his novel ‘The Hungry Tide’. The region is stigmatized as an uninhabitable region where horrendous storms and inundating sea can despair the people. Yet, people migrated with hopes of a utopian life and fortune. Caught in the web of inclement weather and hostile sea, they witness the tides drenching the land twice a day – a symbolic of their chequered fortune. The author voices a sympathetic tone, the woes of people as they are victimized by nature and the persisting tiger menace. He shows them as hapless who are in a limbo eating the bitter fruits of their migrant ancestors’ misadventure. On the flipside, he hints the people entered this virgin region to deface its eco visage. The paper argues an eco centric view with a rationale to the inevitability of their woes for they ventured into the nucleus of a storm prone area in search of new green pastures. It is the human spirit to subdue, that resulted in 450,000 people being subjected to storms and tigers. The human interference with the nature is discussed and anthropocentricity of some voices in the novels is evaluated in the light of loss to ecology. The paper studies the biotic interference, the resultant faunal and floral degradation, and the treatment of relation between the tiger and human beings in The Hungry Tide. Keywords : sunderbans, biotic interference, tiger.

“We abuse land because we regard it a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a commodity to which we belong, we may belong to use it with love and respect”. -Ado Leopold, A Sand Country Almanac

Ado Leopold in the foreword of his book A sand country Almanac used the above words that speak about the exploitation of the earth by man. Leopold uses the phrase ‘Abrahamic conception of land’ (Leopold and Walsh, viii), a tradition that lays before man a vast expanse of nature to exploit it for his sustenance. Such appreciation of nature resulted in ruthless destruction of nature leading to the extinction of many plant and animal species. With population watermark rising steadily, human being is forced to step into the virgin lands and alter their biological maps forever. Opinions clashed when eco centric versions demand preservation of nature against human interference while anthropocentric crusaders offer stiff resistance upholding the priority of human beings in the order of nature. This crossfire between ecology and human being of Sundarbans is the focal point of the paper seen through the eyepiece of Amitav Ghosh’s novel

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The Hungry Tide. This novel echoes the polemics where some claim the safety of nature and tigers while others that of residents of the area. A great deal of literature and films have seen light highlighting the inestimable relevance of ecology to human life. Eco consciousness has contributed to non-fictional writings, research projects, survey reports and documentaries and fiction in form of novels, stories, T.V. serials, and movies. The Machine in the Garden (1964) by Leo Marx tells the shocking intrusion and pervasiveness of machinery in the pastoral scene leading to its transformation. Marx writes:

Within the lifetime of a single generation, a rustic and in large part wild landscape was transformed into the site of the world's most productive industrial machine. It would be difficult to imagine more profound contradictions of value or meaning than those made manifest by this circumstance. Its influence upon our literature is suggested by the recurrent image of the machine's sudden entrance onto the landscape (343).

The country and the city (1973) by Raymond Williams offers a perspective of country and city that radically treads on a different path from that of the past traditions. He quashes long-standing perceptions of rural life with an idyllic gloss and depiction of city with the patina of capitalistic and exploitative defilement. Williams says, “the contrast of the country and city is one of the major forms in which we become conscious of a central part of our experience and of the crises of our society and directs, “to trace the ideas historically and critically” (289, 290). William Rueckert’s Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism (1978) suggests environment oriented study of literature and the interspersion of nature with society. The book pursues texts, poems, plays and other visual media from the ecological point of view. ‘The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology (1996) edited by Glotfelty and Harold Fromm is a collection of essays exploring our interactions with nature, searching for the green areas in fiction and non fictional literature. Ado Leopold’s A Sand Country Almanac (1986) establishes the inalienability of human well being with the good of land that can only be realized with human adherence to values. He closes the book with a call for an ‘intellectual and emotional’ evolution of land ethic. Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring (2002) is the cudgel raised by a eco vigilant lady against the formidable chemical industry. The book presents the way industry misled the public with disinformation and the bureaucratic nonchalance towards the hazards of DDT. The book led to ban of DDT, the credit of which is attributed to Carson. The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Literature in America (2003) by Dana Phillips is an interdisciplinary perspective that sweeps across environmental thought, philosophy and biology contrasting the scientific and literary versions of reality, rationalizing facts with values and funnels the polemical analysis to bring compatibility between nature and culture. Oryx and Crake (2004) of MaddAddam Trilogy is in dystopian genre (what Margaret Atwood calls ‘speculative fiction’ is set in an ‘all lost’ situation caused by a genetic engineering disaster triggered by powerful corporations. The disaster wipes out humanity and leaves behind Showman (who was in the lost world known as Jimmy) as a remnant of extinct species. The novel highlights the relapse of humankind to primitivism. A sequel to Oryx and Crake, The Year of Flood (2009) sustains the dystopian mood of MaddAddam trilogy weaving a tapestry of human atrocities in a new world order. The Lorax (1971) is the first childrens’ fiction (later televised) deals with environmental problems highlighting the eco degradation due to a greedy and selfish Once-ler. His greed devastates a blooming landscape to a dull and polluted one. The story ends happily with Once-ler’s transformation by Lorax restoring the beauty of the place. The Japanese animation was dubbed in Hindi and telecasted as Jungle Book by Doordarshan in





India during the early 1990s serial The Jungle Book. The serial based on Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (1894) where the main character ‘Mougli’ is a real life’s replica of a lost young boy in a jungle having been nurtured by animals. That's All Folks?: Ecocritical Readings of American Animated Features by Murray & Heumann says that The Jungle book and its animated serial tells the proximity of human to nature, living in the lap of nature displaying the bifurcation between nature and culture (2011: 157). Nature has been a perennial purveyor of sublime themes for literature and celluloid made in India or abroad. A number of children’s fiction books like The Magic school bus gets cleaned up’ (by Kristen Earhart), Mars, Jimmy and Me, A House is a House for me and I Know the River Loves me (Maya Gonzales) etc have taken the themes of pollution, eco consciousness and individual responsibility towards nature A good deal of Indian literature too have nature orientation. In Kalidasa’s Sanskrit drama Meghadootam clouds play the go between the two lovers eternalizing the positive vibrations nature has towards human passions. ‘The Flood’ in Kamal Markendeya’s Nectar in the sieve (1954) is the inescapable prostration of human being to wrath of nature (Shika 5). Short stories by Ruskin Bond drift us over the bucolic of Dehradun and Mussourie to show the good of nature in the life of man. ‘An Island of Trees’, ‘No Room for a Leopard, ‘The Tree Lover’, ‘The Cherry Tree’, ‘All Creatures Great and Small’, ‘Copperfield in Jungle’ announce the cherished ideals of love, afforestation, compassion towards animals etc (ibid 6). The mountain in the novel Kantapura (1938) is idolized as Kenchemma and is deemed to be responsible for all the good and bad of people. Rajarao presents the affiliation of common village folk with nature as they pray for her benevolence (ibid 4). R.K.Narayan’s The Dark Room (1938) speaks of Savitri’s response to river and temple as that of Raju’s in The Guide (1958) to river Sarayu and stone slabs (ibid 4). The story between a Dolphin, a kid and villainous human greed cast together is Free Willy (1993). Directed by Simon Wincer this Warner Brothers’ film contrasts eco friendly - childlike innocence with the covetousness of the wicked. ‘To walk with Lions’ is a 1999 movie starring Richard Harries and John Michie who resisted the African Lion poachers. The film is based in Kenya’s Kora National Reserve presenting the struggle of two brothers to conserve wild life in the face of ruthless poachers and corrupt government servants. James Cameron’s movie ‘Avatar’ (2009) narrates how humans venture into other lands to disturb the environment there after exhausting the reserves on earth. The nature bound sapient humanoids and their resistance to the malevolent human encroachment forms the crux of the story. Inspired by a real life event, the movie ‘Erin Brockovich’, directed by Steven Soderbergh presents the struggle of the Erin Brockovich (played by Julia Roberts) against the US West Coast Energy Corporation ‘Pacific Gas and Electric Company’(PG&E). The malignant effects of Hexavalent Chromium, an industrial effluent, defiles the surrounding water resources and Erin crusades for the cause of the affected. Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide presents Sunderbans as a place of catastrophic deluge or as the one subjected to floral and faunal retrograde, particularly tigers for which the region has been a sanctuary for ages. A humanistic view of the people caught amidst the afflictions of perilous nature and menacing tiger is one point of view in the novel. A research expedition of an Indian born, American based cetologist Piya, (with a semi passive attitude interspersing western dynamism and Indian feminine restraint) brings her to Sunderbans to investigate the regular jaunts of Irrawady dolphins (Oracella brevestoris). She accidentally runs into Fokir, who is an otherwise nondescript face among the Sunderbans’ fishermen. Kanai is a linguist on an obligatory visit to Sunderbans to deal with the writings of Nirmal, his relative and the story is led forward by the circumstantial tie up of Piya and Fokir with Kanai. Varied currents like historic





struggle of settlers narrated to us in the writings of Nirmal, and a local NGO’s initiative taken up by his wife Nilima to rekindle the hopeless locals, optimism of Fokir’s wife Moyana towards a stable life, who but occasionally irked by the randomness of Fokir. Hamilton’s zeal to render service to people in the past is contrasted by apathetic and hypocritical modern politicians. The curtain of nature hangs as a backdrop but its unforeseen havoc decisively turns the story. The author draws a gloomy picture of Sunderban’s population prone to cyclonic devastation and animal ferocity through the plight of central and supporting characters. The people are haplessly chained to the land with their pains unmitigated, and some like Kusum try to unshackle themselves only to be engulfed into bitterer life. Catastrophic floods devour the fields, their means of subsistence and ravage their dwellings. In the beginning, when Kanai departs from Piya, he cautions her of the man eaters,(an instance of chronic stigmatization of the land as hostile to visitors (Ghosh 2005: 15). The reader sympathizes the desperation of people and makes it an excellent case for anthropocentric pity. The nature’s harshest scourge appears to bar any relief by any possible human intervention. The pathos of natives being true, yet this unconditional sympathy in their favour surfaces the polemics of biotic interference the land is subjected to since centuries. The name ‘Sunderbans’ evoked many etymological debates. They suggested the derivation of name from 5 possible sources. First says ‘Sundarbans’ as ‘beautiful forest’ as sundar means beautiful. The second comes with the predominance of Sundari tree (Heriteria fomes) giving a variant spelling ‘sunderbans’. The third proposed that the name is a derivation of Samudraban where Shomudrobôn in Bengali means Sea Forest. Encyclopedia2.the free dictionary names it after Chandra-bandhe, a local primitive tribe. ‘Bhatirdesh’or ‘tide country’ is the name of this region in Mughal records, the word ‘bhati’ stands for tide (ibid 8). The fourth points at the reference in Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive fixes the name from sunderbund where the meaning connects to ‘mound’ or ‘embankment’ resulted by tidal action and sedimentation( Yule & Burnell 1903: 869). The last two derivations show that the area is susceptible to tides questioning the possibility of human settlement. The present 4.5 million people of Sunderbans is the result of prospective migration since 12th century that continued through the Mughal period and British raj and later. The encroachment of the natural habitat led to the conversion of lands into arable regions. Eaton. R.M. in his Human settlement and colonization in the Sundarbans, 1200-1750. Agriculture and Human Values, mentioning this phenomenon says that between the 13th and 18th centuries, Muslim pioneers locally remembered as holy men not only established the Islamic religion in many regions of south Bengal, but also contributed for the drastic alteration of a natural, forested eco system (1990: 6-9). The occupations of the encroachers varied from settled agriculture and fishing to collection of forest products. Choice of the occupation was class based where most of the upper caste settlers opted for agriculture. A systematized marketing facility for agricultural yield encouraged farming, while the absence of logistic support was a frustrated the fishing activity (Danda 2007: 29). The regularized encroachments were stamped as ‘Khas Mahals’ (state owned estates) to deter the land hungry Zamindars when the latter saw the land as source for revenue (ibid 28). Whether random encroachment for better prospects or development labeled, government backed legitimate form, every move was revenue driven. The nature whose disposition is originally calamitous with tidal floods, storms and the tiger infestation, now (after) human ‘entry’ is discredited as ‘hostile’ and truth is confused between the rugged, ‘unrestrained’ force of nature and the avaricious ‘intrusion’ of humans into the unbidden realms of earth. The novel quotes the





utopian ‘dream’ of Hamilton, a century ago lured the fortune seekers to ‘venture’ into these lands. In Nirmal’s narration to Kanai Hamilton questions himself, “Why does no one live here? Why are these islands empty of people? Why this valuable soil allowed to fallow? He gets the answer, “people lived here once, but they were driven away by tempests and tides, tigers and crocodiles.”(ibid 50). He bought these islands from the British government that was ‘delighted’ to transfer 10 thousand acres of land. This once uninhabited land in the words of Nirmal, “There were no people, no embankments, no fields. Just kada ar bada, mud and mangrove. At high tide most of the land vanished under water. And everywhere you looked there were predators – tigers, crocodiles, sharks, leopards” (ibid 51). Still the people came ‘by the thousand’ and Nirmal states the reason “For the land, Kanai. What else? This was a time when people were so desperate for land that they were willing to sell themselves in exchange for a bigha or two…And what more, it was free”(ibid 51). They cleared the forests for crops, but were thwarted by frequent inundating tides that salt leeched the land turning it sterile. Trees fell but crops did not grow. Mitchell Thomashow speaks of the consequence of such migrations in her book, Towards a Cosmopolitan Bioregionali,

In many cases, people and species have one option—migration. Populations move between borders and habitats, seeking refuge, if only temporarily, until they can settle in a new homeland. The consequence of such migration is ecological and cultural upheaval. The problem of global refugees is increasingly severe. In his stunning and controversial book The Ends of the Earth (1996), Robert vividly describes the human suffering which accompanies these upheavals. As indigenouscultures confront habitat destruction, they experience the dissipation of material life, and the possible dissolution of social stability and cultural integrity (1990: 122).

This clarifies that the land in its pristine form when subjected to human encroachment leads to the violation of nature’s untrodden realms. Walden or, life in woods records the confessions of David Henry Thoreau when modernity disturbs the serene pastoral:

The whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, soundinglike the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer’s yard, informing me that, man restless city merchants are arriving within the circle of the town, or adventurous country traders from the other side (2009: 91).

‘When the cattle train passes’, Thoreau comments wryly, ‘so is your pastoral life whirled past and away’(ibid 97). These lines may be deviantly analogous to Sunderbans where its sublimity was ‘penetrated’. Far from the peace of Thoreau’s land, the land’s disposition is ‘excited’ but man ‘agitated’ it. Leo Marx levied the charges of Thoreau as ‘pro technology’ (for equating the whistle of locomotive to sound of Hawk). Eco Marxists could reason this seize of the land as the result of poverty driven masses of past who lost their identity by social marginalization in a parochial set up and by those who sought a refuge from the crushing wheels of imperialism. These responses cannot repudiate human’s ethical duty to symbiotic integrity. In his thesis titled “Surviving in Sunderbans : Threats and responses” Anamitra Anurag Danda says:

Habitation of the 54 Sundarbans islands interrupted the normal delta – building process due to erection of embankments, which is a prerequisite for fresh water agro-ecosystem, the mainstay of the economy. In most places the embankments are of earthen construction, providing precious little protection. The incompatibility of human settlement in an active delta is apparent but immediacy prevailed: nature had to be tamed, environment changed and ecology disrupted, land was claimed from the tides. (2007: 3)





However, the embankments did little to stop the floods. The post-zamindari abolition act ushered change in responsibility factor of embankments when the concern of the same shifted from zamindars to government. The former considered it for its revenue generation, while the latter had too little funds to render the welfare activity, at last leaving the woes of the people unredressed. The voice of Nirmal calling the child to realize the vulnerability of the bandh when pestered by innumerable crabs, pessimistically forecasts the fate of people. It is also an instance of nature counteracting in its own natural way, which eventually happened to be against human efforts. Many lauded Hamilton as utopian, but the shades of idealism and eccentricity are subtle. His prescience of condition’s inconsistency with human hopes and his invitation to people to thrive here seem to be incongruent. Miscalculation of judgment could be a feeble defense considering the case of unrealized Port Canning. British government tried to construct a Port Canning at Matla even when alarmed by Mr. Piddington, a shipping inspector and ended as an expensive fiasco due to a terrible cyclone is a classic example of human vulnerability when they misappreciate the intelligible facts of nature (ibid 284-86). The relevance of Port Canning fiasco to Hamilton is that the former happened in the year 1867. Hamilton’s death in the year 1939 reveals that the gruesome incident was 72 years old at the time of his death (ibid 78). If we consider the magnitude of the devastation, it could have been still fresh and couldn’t have escaped the knowledge of Hamilton before he decided to populate the islands. Hamilton could have drawn much from the incident of Matla and his utopianism could have been safer had he seen it through the lens of Matla incident. The suffering of the people is transposable with that of nature. Nirmal could have cast had he considered the “Proceedings of the International Conference W3M Wetlands: Modeling, Monitoring, Management”, held in Wierzba, Poland authored by Tomasz Okruszko, Edward Maltby, Jan Szatylowicz and published as book. The repercussions of Farakkah Project when more than half of the fresh waters of river Ganges were channeled into the Bhagirathi-Hoogly river for navigability of Calcutta port whereby, the discharge in the downstream is reduced drastically. Consequently, the salinity increased near Sunderbans and aggravated the salt trapping in cultivated lands (Orkruszco, Maltby & Szatylowicz 2007: 318). This cascades other effects:

The impact of commissioning the Farakka barrage on agricultural production was severe and so were the impacts on river morphology, groundwater, salinity, fishery, forestry, ecology, navigation, industry and health risk. The environmental situation is degrading gradually in the mangrove wetlands area and surrounding (ibid 319)

In 1980s when a German Naturalist recommended fresh water for tigers to turn away the tigers from human flesh, the government did the same. Nilima mocks the plan saying, “Just imagine that! They were providing water for tigers! In a place where nobody thinks twice about human beings going thirsty” (ibid 241). Her words express an anthropocentric bias while anything like fresh water becomes a rightful claim for human beings which otherwise becomes a ridiculous luxury for an animal. S.P. Gon Choudahri in his book ‘Renewable Energy in Sunderbans’ says, “The last straw on the camel’s back is the growing salinity that has led to liver cirrhosis among the tiger population” (2007: 32). Thus, we can now think of the animal to drink fresh water not only to stop attacking on humans but also to save itself. Discussing the proposal of eco tourism in Sunderbans, Danda says, “The CPR (Common Pool Resource) in question gains significance in the light of the fact that for the community it is life sustaining since it is the only reasonably safe source of potable water but for the tourists it is a cleansing medium and surface water would do just as well provided it appears clean and causes no bodily harm” (ibid 134). When such





‘small scale initiatives’ can think of providing ‘clean’ water to tourists(of course, they being a potential source of revenue), why does Nilima disentitled the same for tigers at least to become less feral? Salinity plagues the Sundari tree where it cannot absorb water and nutrients and ails with top dying disease (ibid 32). Hamilton couldn’t have predicted global warming increasing the frequency of devastating storms every year worsening the climate. The assurance of Nirmal’s words addressing young Kanai’s cynical mockery of Hamilton, “Don’t laugh, Kanai- it was just that the tide country wasn’t ready yet. Someday, who knows it may yet come to be”. (ibid 53) Perhaps the words ‘ready yet’ could be a vague referent to the imminent disaster. The dystopian mood of Nirmal reflects as he despairs on the apathy of animals to human grievances when he says, “The animals already know by instinct we are not comfortably at home in our translated world” (ibid 206). The people suffer with another nature related trouble as the novel shows - the early widowhood of women. They relegate into temporary widowed garbs at their husbands’ departure for hunting. Mohana is enlightened with her stable positive attitude during Fokir’s venture into rivers. Narrow means of subsistence resulted in migrations and a derogatory stamp as the supplier of cheap labour is put on the land. Flesh traders victimized many like Kusum who end their lives in the dark alleys of cities. The agriculture succumbs to the short supply of labour force caused by migration of men in large number from this area. Anuradha Benerjee in her book ‘Environment population and human settlements of Sunderbans delta’ studied the migratory patterns in active delta of Western Sunderbans (comprising districts Sagar island, Kakadwip, Namkhana), Eastern Sunderbans (Basanthi, Gosaba) and Middle Sunderbans (Mathurapur). In the book, she reveals, “of reasons behind out migration from district, economic or for work seems to be most dominating factor causing out migration in 118 villages” (Benerjee 1998: 229). The friction between the state and the settlers is shown in the novel as both parties had its own arguments favoring eviction and settlement respectively. The state’s coercion resulted in the ill-famed Morichjhapa incident seems to be less painful than the nature induced migration. A report titled ‘Indian Sunderbans Delta : A vision submitted jointly by Worldlife fund for Nature (WWF) and Jhadavpur university’s School of oceanographic study says that in the past thirty years approximately 7,000 people have been displaced from their original homes due to cyclone incidences, sea level rise, coastal erosion and coastal flood. It also says, “The Indian Sunderbans Delta(ISD) is particularly vulnerable to coastal flooding and it is understood that 1.35 million people are at high risk from sea level rise, storm surges and coastal flooding with a further 2.4 million people exposed to moderate risk”.(Danda, A. A & Sriskanthan Gayatri et al 2011: 32) Speaking to The Hindu on May 24 2012 Prof. Sugato Hazra, Director, School of Oceanography predicted a gravity that by 2020, 70,000 climatic refugees can be witnessed. The statistics of literacy rate of Sunderbans show a great variation between male and female literacy as 62.84% and 31.96% respectively (Mandal 2003: 120). The work participation of population in the tertiary sector in Sunderbans blocks of India is 108,893 (136) as against 669,000 people engaged in primary sector and its allied activities (ibid 127,131). This variation explains the intensiveness of primary sector. The vexation of Mohana towards the life on basic forms of sustenance like fishing perhaps drove her towards a stable nursing profession. She despairs about the dwindling fish caused by the new prawn harvest and this current striking reality contrasts with the dreams of past generations who saw the bountiful shoals of Sunderbans (ibid 133,134). She wants a promising future by educating her child and flares up on Fokir when he keeps Tutul away from school and takes him for fishing (ibid 133). Mohana’s predilection towards service sector shows the native’s mobility to new green pastures (ibid 129). Thomashow is true when she says, “In the





twenty-first century, having a homeland will represent a profound privilege. Living-in-place may become a quaint anachronism, reinhabitation a yuppie utopian vision”.(2009: 123) The past generations came to cruise in the troubled waters, but the new generation is withdrawing from the land due to its inclemency. People came to change Sunderbans, in that process they abraded the land with their axes and shovels only to withdraw from it. Eco feminist Vera Norwood says, “Nature and culture are interactive processes: human culture is affected by the landscape as well as effecting change on it” (1996: 334). The medieval myth of ‘Bon Bibi’ survives till today showing the strong faith of the people for which vulnerability in the face of inclement weather and hostilities of tiger infested jungles could be a reason behind the fear induced devotion. The settlers equating a very earthly animal to a supernatural demon ‘Dokkin rai’ or ‘Dakshin rai’ and the novel tells the terror and havoc played by this animal in their lives. The instance of stray tigers carrying away the animals and humans is shown in the incident of Kusum’s father’s death. Pertaining to the incidence of tiger related deaths, a dilemmatic condition prevails over the priority accorded to tiger’s life over that of human’s. During the British times, Tiger in this region is thought as a menace when the government rewarded the people for killing a tiger. PRF for 1882-83 and PRF for 1881-82 through 1912-13 reported that in 1883 the reward was 50 Rupees for a full-grown tiger and 20 Rupees for a cub. The amount was raised to 100 Rupees for a tiger and 50 Rupees for a cub in 1906 and to 200 Rupees for a tiger and 100 Rupees for a cub in 1909 (qtd. in Chakrabarthi 87). Chakrabarthi speaks of the government-sponsored slaughter of the tiger:

Thus, a large-scale slaughter of this magnificent animal was undertaken in the Sundarbans under official patronage. Between 1881and 1912 more than 2,400 full grown tigers were killed in the area.(The Annual Reports of the Forest Department, however, from which I derived this figure, do not take tally of those killings which took place outside the forest area or were not reported to the Department.) The authorities left no stone unturned to suppress the tigers. Attempts were made, for example, to destroy them by setting plain traps or traps with spring-loaded bows and poisoned arrows (87).

Government’s legitimisation to kill a tiger on the grounds of public safety legalised a ruthless sanction to kill the tigers for money. The noteworthy point here is targeting the cubs, when potential threat is from a full grown tiger. This speaks of the colonial government’s blind eco policies to ‘cleanse’ the area of tigers than its concern for public safety. The author’s narration of villagers’ furor when a tiger strays into the village speaks of the hostility of villagers towards the tigers. Fear and hatred towards the animal has increased with attacks of the tigers on villages. On the other hand, the launch of Project Tiger in 1973 and a clear proclamation by the then Prime Minister, Smt. Indira Gandhi when she said, “The tiger cannot be preserved in isolation. It is at the apex of a large and complex biotope. Its habitat threatened by human intrusion, commercial forestry and cattle grazing must first be made inviolate.”(Tikader 1983: 259). The raise of Sunderbans region from protected area to Bio reserve,(where any cruelty towards animals invites heavy penalization) has raised the security category of tigers. A tiger’s death in the hands of villagers even in self-defense is a breach of law and results in dire consequences from forest authorities. Nature Environment and Wildlife Society researched tiger straying in a project funded by International Development Agency which studied the reasons behind tiger straying. The study rejects the scarcity of prey as a cause for tiger straying in the village yet, accepting the lacuna of proper prey based study during their field trips, mentions the sighting of good number of Boars, Chetals, Monkeys and Monitors in





this region. But this reason is refutable by the words of Belinda Wright, Executive Director, Wild life Protection Society of India. She, in an article published in The Times of India (TNN), dated March 29 2011, trashed the claim of Union ministry of Forestry on the numbers of tigers. She quotes the study by Dr Ullas Karanth and George Schaller on the dietary demands of tigers and exhorted that if the forest ministry’s numbers on tiger population were true, the region should have 500 Chetals per tiger per year. But, a noted conservationist Valmik Thaper very affirmatively says “It is very hard to spot a deer in Sunderbans now a days compared to other tiger reserves in the country”. During Kanai’s encounter with Horen at Canning, where the latter replies of his presence in that area saying, “jongol korte geslam” which translates as “I went to do jungle”. The words “do jungle” in spite of its brevity hints at ‘human activity’ other than collecting forest products in the jungle. But can it be ascertained that this biotic interference is benign and absolve the people of their interference in the food chain of tigers whether directly or indirectly? The words ‘do jungle’ connotes to villagers encroaching the jungle and the eco systems over there. The human intrusion may not aim to rupture the predator–prey balance, but the definition of the eco system as an ‘interlinked whole’ where disruption at one point triggers the other outcomes. A news article published in TNN on 5 August 2012, the about Sansar Chand serving imprisonment of 6 years on the charges of poaching in Sunderbans areas. It is interesting to see that not only the experts and conservationists hail the verdict of the court against this notorious poacher but also equally by villagers dotting Sunderbans. But, the same article speaks of areas like Nagzira Sanctury where high time poaching is reported are the offenders moving scot-free owing to the lacunae in law enforcement systems. The article says:

The officials are taking no action against people repeatedly laying wire traps even though they have information about them. The detected cases include over a dozen sloth bears, many nilgai, chital, sambar, wild boar, bison, leopards and even tigers. Of the 25-30 electrocution cases reported in Tiroda and Gondia ranges during the period, POR (primary offence report) were filed in all the cases but only 50% cases went to court. An equal number of them remained unsolved or forest officials did not take action against the accused. Court cases are pending since 2001 but are not being pursued. In several cases, charge sheets have not been filed. Six cases of sloth bear electrocution since 2006 remain unsolved in regular poaching pockets of Khursipar, Nimgaon, Indora, Ramatola, Kodelohara, Umarzari, Sarra, Maregaon, Ekodi, Mangezari, Navatola and others surrounding Nagzira and New Nagzira sanctuaries.(TNN, 5 Aug 2012)

S.N.Chary in his ‘Environmental Studies’ says, As the eco systems get destroyed, degraded and fragmented and as the corridors for the movement of animals get cut off, animals tend to stray into the areas occupied by human beings. For example, elephants may stray into agriculture fields, sugar cane fields and destroy crop. This is not unusual in many Indian states. Similarly, take the case of tigers of Sunderbans. When mangroves are encroached upon by human beings, tigers tend to stray into human settlements. The man animal-conflicts are rising due to the increasing population (2008: 143).

The study further revealed that the geomorphic condition of Sunderbans is unfavorable for catching preys and considering the proximity of human habitation to the tiger zone, sometimes divided by just narrow creeks, cattle become the immediate target of tigers. A new research reveals that a villagers being killed by tiger is a rare phenomena with statistical evidence of only 4 deaths in 1995 among 94 cases of tiger straying incidents. This number further sunk to only





one in a span of eight years from 2001 to 2008. Even the incidents of man eating that occurred in forests were in the case of fishermen and honey collectors who entered into the tiger prone area. Added to this, other reasons like confusion of the mangrove stripes of embankment protection with their own habitat leads the tiger into the human habitat. Female tigers enter the nearby paddy fields for littering and ripped paddy looking almost like Shali Ghas draws the animal into human zone mistaking it for its own territory. The report also said that the tides washing the lands twice a day erase the Pheromone spray of the tigers. This spray reminds the tiger its territorial limits and its absence results in straying incidents. Even Nilima says:

Look at that figure, Kanai, That’s the number of people who were killed by tigers in lower Bengal in a six-year period – between 1860 and 1866. The figures were compiled by J. Fayrer – he was the English Naturalist who coined the phrase “Royal Bengal Tiger”. Think of it, Kanai – over four thousand beings killed. That’s almost two people every day, for six years! What would the number add up to over a century? (ibid 240).

But, she fallaciously draws a parallel between numbers 150 years old and roughly computes the statistics for all through the time, even present. She even maintains her own record filled with information obtained from word of mouth (ibid 240). Her reliance on an age-old record and her record compiled by word of mouth stands challenged by an objective modern, scientific and dedicated research, which quoted lowered incidence of tiger related deaths. When Kanai quotes the reasons of overpopulation (ibid 241), encroachment on the habitat she scornfully replies, “Don’t you believe it, these attacks have been going for centuries – they were happening even when the population here was a fraction of what is today” (ibid 240). The narration of Nirmal to Kanai saying, “think of tigers, crocodiles and snakes that lived in the creeks and nalas that covered the islands. This was a feast for them” (ibid 52). The words ‘that lived in creeks and nalas’ tell that it was their dwelling place and it was human who ‘penetrated’ into it. This makes the danger as the one invited rather than accidental. But this triggered the killing of animals as incentivized by Sir Hamilton himself (ibid 52). Nirmal calls Hamilton ‘Monoplokapitalist’ and eventually all his followers are expected to share his attitude of plunder and vandalism but on a very acceptable pretext of ‘settlement’. Nilima’s anthropocentric charge challenges the Benthamite philosophy which argued that it is the ability to suffer and not the ability to reason that should be benchmark or what he otherwise called ‘insuperable line’. Peter Singer, the Australian philosopher in his book, Animal Liberation arguing the rights of animals, questions the validity of ‘speciesism’ saying that it violates the principles of Bentham. He equates speciesists to racists or sexists who outweigh the interests of others for the promotion of their interests. Similarly, speciests allow the interests of their species override the interests of other species (1990: 6, 9). Singer argued that any theory fails to accord equal consideration to suffering of animals on the same plane as that of human and any position that treats similar cases in a dissimilar fashion do not have a morally acceptable status (1990: 120-121). Nilima’s stance as pro human in the light of above philosophy appears more to be parochial than anthropocentric. The animals equally suffer the vulnerability, which is a classic example of biotic interference in the forest domains. The climax of the novel evokes mixed feeling of awe, fear and sympathy in the characters experiencing it.

Although it was several hundred meters away, she could tell that it was an immense animal, so large that it seemed incredible that the tree could sustain its weight. Without blinking, the tiger watched them for several minutes; during this time, it made no movement other than to twitch it s tail. She could imagine that if





she had been able to put a hand on its coat, she would have been able to feel the pounding of its heart (ibid 389).

What could have been the thoughts of that tiger that made it watch them so long? Is it prospective about its food or perceptive of the imminent danger in human form? The phrase ‘pounding of heart’ speaks of its apprehension even in the most inclement weather in the presence of human beings who held contempt for the animal. The gaze of the animal relates with that of the dolphin’s gaze at Nirmal (ibid 235). This is not the ‘imperial and inquisitive gaze’ of Piya with her binoculars, (ibid 72) not the frenzied and vengeful looks of the villagers(ibid 294), not the dictatorial gaze Fokir gave to Kanai (ibid 323) and not the frightened look Kanai gave at the sight of tiger(ibid 329)The words of poet quoted by Nirmal: ‘Some mute animal Raising its calm eyes and seeing through us, And through us. This is destiny…’ (ibid 235) A pseudo-progressive claim defending the biotic inference said, “A land covered over with impenetrable forests, the hideous den of all descriptions of beasts and reptiles… [can]only be improved by deforestation”(Richards & Flint 1990: 17). An anti ecological brazenness daubed with anthropocentricism is visible when the same quoted the words “it is pleased to reflect that was once only a den of wild beasts is now made to yield to not a few their daily bread” (ibid 19). The words reflect the self-justification of every human effort where it crushes the ecosystems that flourished in that area for ages. And the same happened with Sunderbans. When the novel mentions of the disgust of dwellers when the unwelcomed animals creep into their houses, it reflects the melting limnality when they live closely brushing each other.

At night, lying on his cot, Kanai would imagine that the roof had come alive; the thatch would rustle and shake and there would be franatic little outbursts of squeals and hisses….,but every once in a while Kanai would wake up in the morning and find a dead snake or a clutch of birds’ eggs lying on the ground, providing a feast for any army of beetles and ants…Usually the creature, whatever it was, would go shooting off into the air and that was the last you’d see of it (ibid 89).

We find any animal being coming into human premises has to die. The words of Fokir “when a tiger comes into a human settlement, it’s because it wants to die”.(ibid 295) cannot be dismissed as ignorant or dogmatic but a covert subversiveness in us that the death of the animal could be rationalized without a pinch of guilt. However, finally it is man who mastered the art and science of survival, eliminating wilderness and wild beasts. The novel presents the human endeavor of the settlers at various times to inhabitate the jungles. Every human effort to expand this suzerainty in this region was hailed as the triumph of civilization but, it happened at the cost of the Horned Rhinoceros, the Indian Rhino, the Indian Cheetah, the Golden Eagle the Pink headed Duck and the wild Buffalo all species indigenous to Sunderbans vanished during the last 3 centuries (Mukherjee and Tiwari 1984). These facts pertaining to faunal extinction lie mute amidst the other stacks of forest department for these animals in antiquity could not vocalize their annihilation in any fora as a human can. The term ‘biotic interference’ when referred too often could pose a question whether if man is not the part of nature. The answer is affirmative but, intentional and unintentional, systematic and unsystematic degradation of nature when purely attributed to human being sports the idea that, man misconceived this earth as a big hunting ground rather than espousing the ideal of symbiosis. In the novel we see contrasting perspectives of the characters that see nature in





different view at different times. Horen speaks ‘…I went to do jungle yesterday, Mashima,’ …and Bon Bibi granted me enough honey to fill two bottles. I came here to sell them (ibid 27, 28). Here we see the nature as the provider and man as the one who with all humility depends upon nature for his subsistence. We find here the loyalty and gratitude towards nature accorded by Paleolithic tribes for whom nature was a mother. But, the incident of killing the tiger where the angry villagers shout ‘Maar! Maar!’ and set the captured tiger on fire we see man as an aggressor on the nature (ibid 294,295). The condition of the tiger in the village is comparable to the condition experienced by Piya when she falls into the murky waters in the starting of the novel where the author says, “She was a competent swimmer and would have been able to hold her won against the current. It was the disorientation caused by her peculiar condition of light in the silted water that made her panic” (ibid 54-55). ‘silted water’, ‘glowing murk’, ‘metallic savour’, ‘inhaled mud’, ‘cloudy wrappings’ – the words signifies the mysticism the river bears in its womb and when ‘she threw her hands at it, scratching, lunging and pummeling, but its edges seemed always to recede, like slippery walls of placental sac’ (ibid 55), we see the disorientation that could be caused to a human when nature offers a fiery embrace to one who entered her realms. In both cases the beings crossed their limnal bounds and entered into the area where other laws prevail. If horror mixed with hate decides the action at one place, in the other case a silent, underwater violence as mysterious and dark as an eerie secret does the show. But, Fokir rescued Piya; none saved the tiger. If we can “penetrate” in the jungle for living, what ethical ground are we left to question nature’s “trespasses” into human territory? Ghosh narrates the ancient law clearly demarcating the areas of dominance in way of partitioning the property where he identifies the forest separately into parts meant exclusively for those who posses them:

Rousing his hordes the incensed demon set upon the trespassers, only to be put to rout in a pitched battle. But Bob Bibi was merciful in victory and she decided that one half of the tide country would remain in wilderness; this part of the forest she left to DokkinRai and his demon hordes. The rest she claimed for herself and under her rule this once-forested domain was soon made safe for human settlement…All was well until human greed intruded to upset this order. (ibid 103)

Human beings representation of nature as a mother is fragmented and selective. When it is the giver it is mother but if needed, he doesn’t leave any chance to reign over the same. When the Portuguese priests found themselves in the middle of the storm (ibid 147) or when it was Fokir and Piya in the middle of the storm it is the tree they embraced to stop themselves being thrown away(ibid 389). This clinging to the trees in some other part of the world happened to be a movement to save the trees. This embrace saves nature and us. It was remarkable symbiosis when the dolphins become the friends of the fishermen to get their living ! (ibid 168) However, centuries of wisdom and tons of awareness lay waste to enlighten man of the virtues of symbiosis. His zeal and ability to venture, defeat and subjugate through centuries turned many virgin regions of the world into a decayed debris. His zeal to live and thrive costs dearly to nature. The knowledge of a biome was seldom used to protect the undefiled status of the biome, especially when it treasures a lucrative prospect. The dependence of people in this area on forest for their needs is another serious problem addressed by Surind Sankar Chatopadhyay in his article published in Frontline dated 7 June 2008:

Although forest officials deny that any indiscriminate felling of trees has been going on, informed sources in the Environment Department of the Government of





West Bengal said that the substantial increase in the region's population had led to the exploitation of the Sunderbans. In 1951, the area's population was 11, 59,559; by 1991 it had risen to 32, 05,552. Today it stands at approximately 40 lakhs. Most people in the region are poor and depend on the forest for livelihood and, more specifically, their firewood needs.

Hamilton Buchanan studied the pattern of settlers in Chittagong and wrote, “The woods however are not considered as property; the ryot (settler cultivator) may go into them and cut whatever timber he wants” (1798: 36). The trend of venturing into the forest by the settlers in this area suggests the antiquity of biotic interference in this area. The mute suffering of nature in the hands of humans is analogized to eco feminist theories where cultures over nature, reason over emotion have their dominion. We find in the novel Nilima’s forbearance of Nirmal’ s eccentricities, Moyana’s struggle to bring her family to comfortable position bearing with Fokir’s escapades, and Kusum’s violation by the vicious elements who made her a scapegoat to societies lechery All bear witness to the way women endure the life as nature endures the onslaughts of man. The patience of the woman when her own father sent her out of her marital family for resisting molestation in law (ibid 90) translates in the way when nature accorded the responsible status to man to protect it but finds itself ravaged by the same. It is the greed, selfishness, intolerance, short sightedness, ignorance, stupidity, apathy and denial, the ‘underlying human frailties’ that is testing the patience of mother earth (Holdren, Daily & Ehrlich, 1995). He considers the nature’s silence during his plunder as its muteness but fails to realize that he is chipping away the blocks of wood on which his feet rest. An analogy of nature as a waterbed where depression at one point could translate in another area. The reactions are not local immediate and pervasive, yet the shocks are visible in some other regions. It is unfortunate not to contemplate on the link between these two happenings by man. Nature is at once harsh and fragile. Man should protect himself from its ruthlessness and save its fragility and the balance requires to remain untitled. As long as the environmental concerns are seen with a skeptical eye as counter-progressive and anti-humanitarian, intrusions continue into the areas that are to be kept undefiled. The hopes and ventures of people expecting brighter prospects in Suderbans may be temporarily anti-climactic, but the government’s intervention and global attention resulting in actions could change the face of these areas. The centuries old experience of the people of the tidal country might have made soul of Hamilton realize that true civilization is not dreaming for utopia, but understanding the message of conscience and dealing with the world around accordingly. As Aldo Leopold, says in A Sand Country Almanac,

A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.

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