Accessing Community Rights and Livelihood Through Tourism: A Community-Based Tourism Initiative in Kumirmari, Sundarban

Introduction

The Sundarbans derives its name from the word Sundari, a species of the mangrove tree, thereby giving it its name ‘Forest of the Sundari Trees.’ The Sundarbans, created by the delta of the rivers – Hoogly, Meghna, and Brahmaputra and its innumerable tributaries, is the world’s largest mangrove ecosystem, spread across Bangladesh and India. Out of a total of 25,500 sq km, about 9630 sq km is located in India (Bera & Sahay, 2010).

The forest is home to unique flora and fauna and possibly the only mangroves in the world that is also home to the Bengal tiger. The Sundarbans has an estimated 425 species of wildlife, which includes crocodiles, sharks, dolphins, snakes, spotted deer, and over 240 bird species, including a large number of migratory birds.

The Indian Sundarbans (henceforth referred to as Sundarbans) comprises of 102 islands, 54 of which are habited, spread over the districts of North and South 24 Parganas, West Bengal (see Figure 1), with a total population of around 4.37 million (CSE, 2012).

Figure 1.

Map of the Sundarbans

The primary occupation of the people is agriculture (60%), followed by fishing (18%), with the other organised and unorganised sectors making up the remaining 22% of the workforce (CSE, 2012). Basic amenities and infrastructure such as electricity, water supply, education, and health services are, severely lacking on many of the islands. While the islands closest to the sea are vulnerable to storms and cyclones, those closer to the forests are vulnerable to attacks from tigers and crocodiles. An added challenge for the people of the islands since the 1970s has been the various legal measures that have severely curtailed the area of the forest available for the people of the Sundarbans.¹

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006, known as the Forest Rights Act (FRA), could have granted rights to the forest dwelling communities. However, in reality the people of the Sundarbans have to fight for their forest rights, as the West Bengal government does not even recognise the very applicability of this Act by claiming that there is no habitation of people in the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and in some parts of the Biosphere Reserve. The fact, however, is that more than a million people from the islands continue to remain directly and indirectly dependent on these forests for their livelihood through fishing, honey collection, and collection of other minor forest produce, rights of which are recognised under the FRA.

With the tourism industry contributing significantly to today’s economy, coastal and ocean tourism is turning out to be the single largest contributor. The scale of marine and coastal tourism is wide and includes activities such as fishing, snorkelling, scuba diving, windsurfing, and yachting, as well as the enormous infrastructure for coastal recreation, including restaurants, hotels, shops, marinas, theme parks, tour companies among others (Minocher, 2014). The development of coastal and marine tourism in India follow similar patterns.

Tourism in the Sundarbans, though restricted to a few islands until now, has started gaining popularity in the past decade and half. Islands around the Gosaba block (administrative division in the Canning subdivision of South 24 Parganas district) have seen a spurt in the construction of hotels. Mainly outside people who have also started purchasing land bordering the forest areas, own these hotels. Local people find it difficult to establish hotels here, as banks are hesitant about giving loans to people from the local communities, since they are sceptical about their ability to repay.

The main wildlife safaris start from the Gosaba islands. While fishing is banned in the eight blocks, which make the core zone, tourist boats are allowed to go into three of the eight blocks. 55 boats are allowed per day; however, these boats often cut through fishing nets, causing huge financial losses to fisher folk. Loud noise, effluents and littering with beer cans and plastic bottles from the boats is also causing a decline in fish population in the region where the boats ply.