Tiger widows try to rebuild their lives
After losing husbands, women of Sundarbans also battle exclusion
Shibani Mistry’s husband went crab fishing for extra income four years ago — only to die from a regrettably familiar cause on this West Bengali island: a tiger attack.
“We had very little money ahead of a religious festival, and so he had no other option since a catch of the crabs only fetch a good price in the market,” said Mistry, 35, who lives in Malipara village and depends on handouts from neighbors and a local charity. “He went, and he never returned. He was taken away by a tiger.”
In the mangroves of Sundarbans, a lush green U.N. world heritage site spread over 7,700 square miles of mostly swamp between India and Bangladesh, every villager who is a crab fisherman or a honey collector has a tragic tiger story to share.
The women, who are known as the tiger widows of Sundarbans, live lonely, impoverished lives battling more than just the loss of their spouses.
USA TODAY tracked at least nine families who have lost male members to tiger attacks here.
“We live a miserable life,” Mistry said. “I have sent my son to live with my parents in Kolkata while I live here with my teenage daughter. She goes to school, but I can hardly get him books or afford a private tutor.”
In an adjoining village, Aparna Shiyali, 30, is a tiger widow who now risks her own life to go crab fishing.
“It was a spring day when he went crab fishing and never returned. Now I go crab fishing because if I do not go, my children will starve,” Shiyali said as her young daughter came running to stand by her mother.
Kanan Ojha, 55, who lost her husband two decades ago, stares blankly. “I am a living corpse ac- tually. I had to face a lot since my husband’s death. I was branded unlucky,” Ojha said. “I married off my only daughter and my parents-in-law are also gone now. Looking back I have lived a terrible life.”
TIGER ATTACKS ON THE RISE
Conflicts with tigers in the mangroves of Sundarbans is unavoidable for villagers who have no alternative livelihood besides fishing, honey collection and subsistence farming.
Tiger attacks are increasing because of conservation efforts to protect the endangered animals, who are facing a steady loss of habitat and scarcity of prey.
Sundarbans is home to one of the largest populations of the protected Royal Bengal tigers, who co-exist with nearly 4.3 million people.
The West Bengal forest department puts the toll from tiger attacks at 10 every year, but villagers and social workers in the region say at least 10 tiger deaths occur every month.
Ajit Baidya remembers his chilling encounter two years ago with a Royal Bengal tiger when he lost his friend in the swamps of Sundarbans forest.
Baidya had gone crab fishing — considered more lucrative than common fishing — when a tiger leapt into their boat and snatched his friend. As the animal dug its teeth into the neck of his friend, dragging him into the water, Baidya put up a fight and risked his own life.
“I too jumped into the water and pulled my friend by his feet while the tiger was holding him by his neck and trying to drag him to the shore. It was a tug of war which I won and lost,” he said.
Baidya had managed to free his friend who died from the bite.
CONSERVATION GAINS AND HUMAN LOSSES
Nilanjan Mallick, chief conservator of forest and field director of Sunderbans Tiger Reserve, said conservation efforts show the area’s population is improving.
On the last tiger count in 201617, Mallick said, cameras installed in the forests showed 87 tigers captured, excluding cubs. He said the actual number of tigers is much higher since cameras do not cover the entire area. As a result of concerted efforts under India’s “Project Tiger” initiative, the country is now home to the most tigers in the world: 2,226, according to the official 2014 estimate, up 30% from 1,706 in 2010.
“We have been able to stop organized poaching, and the animal has a sufficient prey base,” Mallick said. To keep them away from humans, “we try to barricade the villages with nylon nets or set up trap cages with live bait. Straying is a permanent issue.”
Hunting in the marshland is not easy for Sundarban tigers, so they see everything as prey even though humans are not their preferred food. “Human beings are the easiest prey when they come close to the animal,” he said.
WIDOWS STRUGGLE FOR LIVELIHOOD
The villagers of Sundarban — whether Hindus or Muslims —worship Bonobibi, Queen of the Forest, who is their guardian deity, as well as Dakkhin Ray, the God of the tiger, before they venture out to fish or collect honey.
But these deities do not always provide the hoped for protection, especially if the villagers wander into areas restricted to the tigers.
If loss of a loved one isn’t bad enough, tiger widows often fail to receive government compensation they are owed because of corruption in West Bengal state, according to N.C. Jana, who runs the non-profit Sundarban Tiger Widow Welfare Society.
Widows interviewed in the villages said they never got any government support after their husbands’ deaths. “The families of the victims are not even aware of the compensation they are entitled to,” Jana said.