DOBAKI (Bangladesh): “We cannot see the tiger but we feel the danger all around us,” says Sawkat Sardar as the vast, silent jungle closes in around him.
Bangladesh’s Sunderbans mangrove forest is famed for its maneaters and while for many it is a place of national pride and outstanding natural beauty, for Sawkat it is a place of fear.
Armed with nothing more than his courage Sawkat picks his way through the dense vegetation in search of honeycombs.
He knows the danger that lurks there: Royal Bengal tigers up to 3.1 metres (10.2 ft) long, with claws like daggers and jaws powerful enough to rip a man limb from limb.
If a victim is lucky, death is instant — the result of a single deadly lunge to the back of the neck.
Lying on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta where it meets the Bay of Bengal, the Sunderbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest covering some 5,800 square kilometres about 40 per cent of which is in India.
Made up of around 200 lush forested islands separated by a complex network of hundreds of tidal rivers and creeks, it forms an important buffer shielding millions from cyclonic storms and tidal waves in the Bay of Bengal.
Although not inhabited, the jungle is a magnet for thousands of impoverished villagers who live along its boundaries.
Driven by economic necessity rather than choice they brave not only tigers but also king cobras, crocodiles, and murderous, ransom-hungry pirates to eke out a meagre living.
Twenty-five years ago on his first honey hunting expedition, Sawkat’s uncle was mauled to death by an adult male tiger, one of around 20 people killed each year by the big cats.
“I had a young family to support and I needed more money so my uncle invited me to join his group,” says Sawkat, who is in his sixties, and has worked in the Sunderbans fishing and collecting wood or honey almost all his life.
“But on my very first trip my uncle was killed. We were all walking through the jungle when suddenly we heard this rough, clumsy noise and then someone said, ‘Oh my God’.”
Sawkat and his band of fellow honey hunters, banging sticks on tree trunks in an attempt to scare away the tiger, retraced their steps in search of their leader’s body.
“First we found the blood, then the dead body. The noise had frightened the tiger and made it abandon it,” he says.
“We took him home so my aunt and my two cousins could give him a religious burial,” he adds.
There are only an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 Bengal tigers left in the world today, down from 100,000 in 1900. The Sunderbans is home to an estimated 500 with others found in India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
The endangered species once roamed forests throughout Bangladesh but the last tiger outside the Sunderbans was shot in 1956, according to the Forest Department.
Now confined to the mangrove, experts say that in order to move between its many islands the tigers have become almost amphibious and developed the ability to drink saline water.
Of all those who venture into this vast and dangerous wilderness, it is honey collectors like Sawkat who face the greatest risk.
Fanning out alone through the forest they plough through the thick clay-like mud of soil submerged twice a day by tides, their eyes constantly fixed on the tree line.
Once a honeycomb is spotted torches of leaves are lit to smoke out the bees and the wax is cut down.
The nature of the work means that the men are often alone and distracted making them easy prey.
Some 3,000 honey hunters in groups of up to 10 work in the Bangladesh part of the Sunderbans for two to three months each year.
The season begins in early April with a ceremony at a village on the edge of the forest where villagers and local dignitaries gather to say prayers for the honey hunters’ safe return. Any forays into the forest before this date are thought to bring bad luck.
The end of the ceremony signals the start of a marathon race into the forest to be the first to reach the best quality honey. The journey can mean rowing for up to 18 hours with only one break.
For the next couple of months the honey hunters spend up to 15 days at a time in the forest, sleeping on board their six-metre (20 ft) country boats, setting off each day at sunrise and returning at dusk.
Since Sawkat joined his uncle’s group he has travelled home with the bodies of at least 10 colleagues slain by tigers.
After his uncle’s death, Sawkat took 10 days to muster the courage to return.
“I was afraid but it was my only choice to go back and try to forget what happened,” he says.
Since then he has returned hundreds of times, but the fear he might meet the same fate still haunts him.
For those with the nerve, however, honey collecting is a rare money making opportunity in a country where nearly half the 140 million population lives on less than a dollar a day.
On average one group of honey hunters will collect between 15 and 20 kg (33 to 44 pounds) of honey per day. Sunderbans honey is considered the finest in Bangladesh and sold for upwards of 150 (just over two dollars) taka per kilo.
The best honey is found in April and May. In mid-April the flower from which the best honey comes stops flowering and by June the honey is considered too bitter to be profitable.
But during the first two months of the season a honey hunter can earn around 7,000 taka (100 dollars) per month compared the 1,500 they could earn as fishermen.
The money is enough to live on for at least four months.
After each trip, Sawkat returns to his village for a few days’ rest. Here he relaxes by carrying out maintenance work on his one-room mud-built house or by playing with his three-year-old grandson.
He always receives a hero’s welcome from his anxious wife, Momena, and son, Shahdhat, 25, and daughter Mochhena, 27.
“Whenever I leave everyone is very sad and when I come back everyone is full of joy and so I always go to the market and buy something good like beef or chicken to celebrate,” he says.
A big meal is prepared for a get-together of family and friends.
Everyone in the village admires Sawkat’s bravery. Desite the financial incentives, honey hunting remains the preserve of a courageous few.
Sawkat’s son Shahdhat confesses that he is too afraid to join his father’s group. Instead he works in the forest as a fisherman. “I would prefer him not to go into the forest at all but he says he must because his father is not earning enough,” says Sawkat.
“I hope that my grandson will never have to go there,” he adds.
Over the last 50 years tigers in the Sunderbans have killed at least 1,000 people.
“Essentially tigers are not maneaters but there is a theory that drinking saline water changes their nature and makes them more aggressive,” says Ainun Nishat, the World Conservation Union’s country representative in Bangladesh.
“And once they have attacked a man they get a taste for it,” he adds.
Various methods have been employed to deter tiger attacks.
Some honey hunters pray to folk deities to protect them from different animals. Others, in India, have taken to wearing masks on the back of their heads to confuse the tigers which tend only to attack from behind. Attacks stopped for a while but later resumed as the tigers adapted to the ploy.
The majority, however, place their faith in God and the belief that a tiger can be scared away by loud noise.—AFP
