Environment, Space, Place

Abstract:

Sundarbans attracts worldwide attention for being the largest single block halophytic mangrove forest and for Royal Bengal Tiger. Along with ecological conservation, recent scholarly works demonstrate the importance of mangrove preservation for withstanding climate change-induced natural calamities. These conservation programs following the trend of the West separate human settlements from the forest and restrict human access to forest for maintaining wilderness; this I mark as the first wave of territorialization. Based on a case study of one of the village islands in Sundarbans, adjacent to the core forest, I illustrate how in this dynamic delta the recent changes in the islanders' outlook toward life and livelihoods, as induced by the first wave of territorialization, leading them to embrace a second wave of territorialization and to what extent that is impacting the sustainability of human settlements in this dynamic delta. It also elaborates as soon as islanders’ living practice turns into livelihoods, they become reluctant to take up those traditional livelihoods as being perceived ‘risky,’ ‘painful,’ ‘uncertain,’ and ‘destructive for Sundarbans.’ The villagers' intention to find a better and more respected livelihood directs them toward the city and leads them to normalize and in turn concretize the already-imposed forest—settlement territorial division. This concretization of the boundary is termed here as the second wave of territorialization. I posit the upshot of this is a double layer of distancing, which is detrimental to the longterm sustainability of nature—human relationship in this dynamic delta. In a nutshell, this article argues that the inherent understanding about this liminal landscape that these islanders gather while engaging with traditional livelihoods are crucial to combat the massive climate change-induced alterations that this delta is going to witness in the near future. Therefore, this disengagement is not only devastating for the ecology of the Sundarbans; it is going to be even more threatening to the human settlements of this area.