Navigating Disturbance: Ecological Challenges and Cultural Narratives in The Hungry Tide

Navigating Disturbance: Ecological Challenges and Cultural Narratives in The Hungry Tide
Khushboo Agrawal

Abstract

Deforestation, industrialisation, and plastic pollution disrupt the fragile balance between human habitats and the natural world. In the Sundarbans, a vital mangrove wetland that buffers against disasters and shelters rare species, human encroachment erodes vegetation and imperils biodiversity. Urban dwellers feel these imbalances through extreme weather like scorching heat, bitter cold, and unnatural fog, while events like the COVID-19 pandemic reveal the perils of invading untouched wilderness. Overpopulation exacerbates this crisis, echoing the myth of Bonbibi, the forest goddess who brokered a pact with the tiger deity Dokkhin Rai: humans and tigers must respect each other’s domains, lest violation invite doom. Sundarbans’ impoverished communities, driven by necessity into the tiger-haunted woods for survival, invoke Bonbibi’s protection, viewing the tiger as a devilish embodiment of peril. Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide, set amid West Bengal’s mangrove islands, weaves the improbable bond between marine biologist Piya and fisherman Fokir, who connect wordlessly amid riverine nights against the backdrop of refugee resettlement in the Morichjhapi forest reserves.