More and more people in the Sunderbans are turning to the forests for livelihood because the Covid pandemic has robbed them of their income.

The people are illegally entering forest creeks to catch crabs and fish, risking their lives. This has led to a spurt in human-wildlife conflict.

There have been four deaths because of tiger attacks in the past two months, most of them in the Jhila forest, said an official of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve. Over 25 people have died in tiger attacks since March 2020, according to the forest department.

The prolonged bar on tourists in the Sunderbans because of the Covid curbs has destroyed the livelihood of many residents.

The owners and employees of hotels, tour guides, boatmen and the others have lost their income.

Tens of thousands of migrant labourers had returned to the mangrove delta during the lockdown last year. Many of them took to an alternate livelihood. Some started farming and fishing in local ponds on a small scale.

But the Covid curbs following a fresh spike in cases

this year has again robbed many people of their income. Saline water flooded acres of land during the landfall of Cyclone Yaas in May this year, turning many farmlands infertile.

“The mangrove delta is as much about its people as it is about its forests. The forests thrive because of the people living on the fringes. But the pandemic has posed unprecedented challenges to the local population,” said Tapas Das, the field director of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve.

Tapas Manna, a boatman, is living on free ration and relief materials from NGOs.

Manna was in charge of a boat owned by the owner of a hotel named Apanjan, near Pakhiralay, a village in the Gosaba block of the Sunderbans, around 92km from Calcutta. He used to earn Rs 7,000-8,000, including tips from tourists.

“A party that spotted a tiger would give more than a party spotting a crocodile,” said Manna, who lives with his mother, wife, a son and a daughter.

Manna owns a small plot of land but it has been rendered infertile by the incursion of saline water during Yaas. “For at least another year, it is impossible to till the land,” he said.

Around two lakh tourists would visit the Sunderbans every year before the pandemic. A section of the earnings from them would go to the joint forest management committees for community development.

There are over 100 hotels and homestays on the fringes of the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve itself, according to the members of the Sundarban Hotel Owners’ Association. The number would be double if the hotels in the South 24 Parganas forest division are included. The hotels, according to its size, employ local youths as cooks and service staff and security guards.

The number of licensed motor boats and launches would be close to 500, said an official of the local administration. Each launch would at least have a couple of people other than the helmsman.

“The lives of close to 50,000 people depend on tourism. The owners of hotels are defaulting on payment of the loan instalments. Boatmen are working as daily labourers when they can,” said Prabir Sinha Ray, the general secretary of the hotel owners’ association.

The mangrove delta was shut for tourists from March 2020, following the imposition of the country-wide lockdown as a precaution against Covid.

After reopening for a few days in June last year, a suspension in July followed a spurt in cases. The National Park was reopened in September before shutting down again with the spike in cases this year.