Saplings ready for transfer..

Our project is located in Indian Sunderban, at the mouth of Bay of Bengal in South Asia. Endowed with inter tidal stretches of mangrove forests Sunderban here, covers an area of above 4000sq km. This rare mangrove habitat is the home of Royal Bengal tigers. The tigers here are exceptional as they are known to attack human not just in self-defence but also prey on them.

The villages fringing the forest have dense human population that are mostly forest fishers or honey collectors. They are very poor with low food security and thus heavily dependent on forest resources for their livelihood. Hence instances of human deaths/ injuries are very high in man tiger conflicts in these villages. Further, Sunderban being a hot spot of climate change, the villages are also very vulnerable to its impacts as rise in sea level, sudden tidal storms, erratic rainfall, coastal erosion etc.

Objective-

In the above context our project has three basic goals. First is to reduce man tiger conflicts and number of deaths in the target villages. Second is to reduce biotic pressures in the tiger habitat and create more inviolate space for big cats. The third important objective is to mitigate impacts of climate change in the target villages.

Activities-

Our work is in continuation of our pilot project that we started in January 2015, with the first round of RSG. The objectives of the project are being realized with generation of sustainable means of traditional livelihood with restoration of mangrove ecology. For this, one of the most sustaining benefits of the project is the development of community owned mangrove forests that would be conserved by the villagers themselves using their traditional practices. These forests are to generate sustainable sources of their traditional livelihoods including fishing, crab catching, honey collection, besides reviving traditional ways of life as folk healing etc.

Further, revival of aquatic eco systems, for culture of fish and crabs and promoting agricultural activities, is also a part of our project activities. The coastal villages get carved into a number of inlets and gulfs by the gushing tidal waters of Bay of Bengal, into which flow large and small rivers. But unfortunately, over a period of time many of these ponds in the vicinity of these villages have become silted and thus rendered useless. We are trying to regenerate such ponds by manual removal of silt .

Awareness programmes are also a part of the project to enhance a sense of belonging and protection towards forest and bio diversity within the beneficiaries. The local communities would feel proud of their mangrove and wildlife heritage, realizing that reducing pressures on tiger habitat will not only conserve tigers but also protect their lives.