The Sundarbans is a region of mangrove forests spread across
many islands. It straddles the border
between India and Bangladesh, on the Bay of Bengal. In earlier times, it was a civilized place, a
flourishing port region. Archaeologists
recently discovered a walled city, built in the fourth century, that covered
two and a half square miles (6.47 sq. km).
Ruins are scattered throughout the jungle, including temples and
monasteries. In 1586, a European visitor
reported seeing fertile land and sturdy, storm-resistant houses.
Over the last 600 years, the land has experienced big
changes. Beneath the Bengal Basin, the
geologic structures have tipped, and the course of the Ganges has shifted to
the east. The flow of the Ganges no
longer enters the Sundarbans. Explosive
population growth upstream has loaded streams with eroded silt. Today, little fresh water enters the
Sundarbans, and the forest has become too salty for farming in many
places.
There are large quantities of valuable timber in the
Sundarbans, but there is little logging, because entering the forest is fairly
suicidal. Even poachers stay away. The sharks and crocodiles take great delight
in having humans for lunch. Venomous
vipers plunge from trees onto your head, or crawl into bed with you at night
(don’t roll over!). Sea snakes are ten
to forty times more poisonous than cobras.
The primary man-eaters are the tigers. In the dense, swampy, tangled forest, you
never feel safe for a minute — and guns and numbers provide no protection. Hundreds are killed every year. One hundred years ago, during a six-year
period, 4,218 people were eaten by tigers in the Sundarbans. Tigers think twice before attacking a boar,
because they are strong and have sharp tusks.
But humans are slow, weak, sitting ducks (and they taste a lot like
monkeys).
Tigers can weigh up to 500 pounds (226 kg), and grow up to
nine feet long (2.7 m). They almost
always attack from behind, and instantly kill their victims by crushing their
necks. They can leap onto a boat,
without rocking it, snatch a person, and disappear into the forest before
anyone realizes what happened. They
often do this at 11 PM, when everyone is asleep, and they are said to prefer
the fattest. There are many stories of
flying tigers. They can leap 20 feet with
a dead human in their jaws.
Tigers may sit patiently in the brush for hours, waiting for
the ideal moment to pounce and snatch.
They can move across the land without making a sound, materialize
anywhere, and hide behind a blade of grass.
Tigers are rarely seen, and they always see you first. Scientists know almost nothing about them,
because there is no way to observe them without becoming cat food.
Sy Montgomery discussed the healthy relationship between
humans, tigers, and forests in her book Spell
of the Tiger. Modern folks
suffer from immense spiritual pain because we don’t remember who we are. Somewhere down the line, we got confused, and
began to hallucinate that we were the lords and masters of the universe. The folks of the Sundarbans have never
forgotten that humans, like everything else that breathes, are meat. They are kept humble by the powerful spell of
the tiger. We are all simply members of
the family of life, where everyone is meat, and nobody is special.
Montgomery once met an unlucky shaman. “His father, his brother, and his favorite
son were all killed by tigers. His wife
was eaten by a crocodile. His daughter
drowned in the river. His house was
struck by lightning and burned to the ground.”
He did not hate tigers. “No
matter how many men are killed, no matter how deeply the man-eaters are feared,
the tiger is not hated. Almost everyone
agrees on this point.” They are sacred
creatures that are worshipped, but not loved.
Likewise, the snakes are honored and loved, despite the fact that they
kill thousands of Indians every year.
Hindus and Sufi Muslims live together in the Sundarbans, and
they are tolerant and respectful of each other (unlike in urban areas). Hindus worship local Muslim deities, and vice
versa. Every year, villages hold sacred
celebrations to honor Bonobibi, the forest goddess, and Daksin Ray, the tiger
god. Unlike Western people, they have a
spiritual connection to place.
In the Sundarbans, the Forest Service allows people to enter
the forest to fish, collect dry firewood, or gather honey. No groups are given a permit unless their
party includes a reputable shaman to speak the sacred mantras, appease the
forest deities, and provide the illusion of spiritual protection.
In the Indus Valley, archaeologists have discovered a series
of five clay panels at the site of Mohenjo-Daro, dating to 3000 BC: (1) tiger and forest, (2) person chasing
tiger, (3) a god begging the tiger, (4) loggers clear-cutting, (5) god gone,
tiger gone, forest gone. Moral:
agriculture destroys everything sacred. It
echoes the Epic of
Gilgamesh.
The tigers do a great job of slowing the destruction of the
Sundarbans. If the forest were
destroyed, the land would be swept into the sea. In 1984, a portion of the Sundarbans was
turned into a national park. India is a
world leader in protecting tigers, but the tigers will never be safe until the
human herd returns to sustainable levels — the sooner the better.
We are now living in the Kali Yuga, the last of four world
ages, according to the Hindus. In their
scriptures, this is an era when human integrity hits bottom: “Property becomes
rank, wealth the only source of virtue, passion the sole bond of union,
falsehood the source of success.” Some
believe that the end of the world is not far off.
In any case, climate change and rising sea levels seem
certain to devastate the low-lying Sundarbans, along with its mangroves and
tigers. Over the last 125 years, the
rate of severe storms has been increasing.
Some associate this with deforestation.
In the Bay of Bengal, storm-driven tidal waves can grow to 250 feet
high.
I will never forget this book, because it presents humans in
normal, traditional way. It’s a powerful
message that reaches ancient places. It
provides a healthy contrast to Western society, where every predator is a
problem that needs to be killed.
Montgomery, Sy, Spell
of the Tiger, Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1995.
