The Hungry Tide

Author: Amitav Ghosh
Publisher: Harper Collins (7th edition) 2015

Many major rivers flow into the bay of bengal, Ganga, Brahmaputhra, Meghana and Hooghly to name a few, creating thousands of islands between rivulets of those rivers at the bay.  Most of the large islands are covered by mangrove forests.  These rivulets are themselves large rivers, some several kilometers wide.  Tides reach as far as three hundred kilometers inland submerging some islands and forests just remerging hours later.  Therefore, this region is known as the ’bhati-desh’ (tide country).  It is also known as Sundarban. 

India and Bangladesh border runs through these islands.  The western border of India and Bangladesh runs through the Ichamati river.  Bounded between the Ichamati river and the Bidyadhari river lies the Sundarban national park of west bengal, India.   Sundarban means “beautiful forest”.  The rivers in Sundarban are infested with crocodiles and forests are infested with tigers.  Only bandits lived in this area prior to 1900 but it all changed when a Scottish youngman named Daniel Hamilton came to work for a shipping company in Calcutta.  He moved to an island in Sundarban (now known as the Hamilton Island) and opened the doors for poor people from surrounding states to move into Sundarban.  The population in Sundarban is about 5 million today.  The diminishing roaming areas for Bengal tigers increased the human-tiger conflicts.  Hearing a tiger eating a man is normal news in Sundarbans.  There are about 100 tigers that live in Sundarban today. 

Piyaly Roy is a young American cetologist (a person who studies marine mammals) who believes that there are river dolphins in Sundarban.  Kanai Dutt was the founder and chief executive of a small business.  They meet on the train from Calcutta to Canning.

 …

‘I am hoping to wrangle a permit to do survey of the marine mammals in Sundarbans.’

‘Really? All we hear about is the tigers and crocodiles’.

‘I know.’  She said.  ‘the cetacean population has kind of disappeared from view.  No one knows whether it’s because they are gone or because they havn’t been studied.  There hasn’t ever been a proper survey.’

‘And why is that?’

‘May be because it’s impossible to get permission?’ she said. ‘There was a team here last year.  They prepared for months, sent in the papers and everything.  But they didn’t even make it out on the water.  Their permits were withdrawn at the last minute’.

‘And why do you think you’ll fare better?’

‘I have an uncle in Kolkata who’s a big wheel in the government.  He’s spoken to someone in the Forest department’s office in Canning.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.’

He smiled and put out a hand. ‘I should introduce myself; I am Kanai Dutt.’

‘And I am Piyali Roy — but everyone calls me Piya and what brings you to Canning, Mr. Dutt?

‘Kanai — call me Kanai.’

‘Kan-ay’

‘Say it to rhyme with Hawaii.’

‘Kanaii?’

‘Yes, that’s right.  I am on my way to visit an aunt of mine’.

’She lives in Canning?’

’No, she lives in a place called Lusibari.  It’s quite a way from Canning.’

‘Where exactly?’

‘Canning is the railhead for Sundarbans and Lusibari is the furthest of the inhabited islands.  It’s a long way upriver — you have to go past Annpur, Jamespur, and Emilybari.  Lusibari just means Lucy’s House.’

‘Lucy’s House? As in the name of “Lucy”?

‘Yes’.  A gleam came into his eyes and he said, ‘You should come and visit the place.  I’ll tell you the story of how it got its name.’

‘Is that an invitation?’ Piya said smiling.

‘Absolutely’.

They went their separate ways at Canning.  It was not a safe place to travel, especially for a young single female.  A fisherman rescued her from a deep trouble she was in and even though they could not understand each other's languages, they formed an unlikely bond.  

This is an excellent novel that will take you deeply into Sundarban; introduce its people and their culture; and their struggle with tigers, crocodiles and cyclones.