Negotiating with Tides and Tigers: Life on the Boundaries of Bangladesh’s Flooded Forest

Abstract

The Sundarbans, which stretches from the Bay of Bengal over parts of India and Bangladesh, is the largest mangrove forest in the world, constantly in flux due to the erosion and cyclones that can drastically reshape the land. This article explores how Muslims, Hindus and the Indigenous Munda must negotiate the precarity of life and work on the forest boundaries, and the constant fluctuation of institutions and geography. These communities depend on the forest, negotiating dangers such as tigers, crocodiles, snakes, cyclones and the strict limitations imposed by the Forest Department. This article will explore boundaries, erosion and forest predators in turn, culminating in the argument that the roots developed by the Sundarbans’ communities incorporate spiritual collaboration as a form of syncretism. This article argues that, like the mangroves that characterise the Sundarbans, the communities that live on its boundaries have developed a distinctive system of roots that negotiates the unique demands of life in the region.