Together with other local women, Aparna planted trees and nurtured them into a little forest that now protects river embankments. Women have planted mangroves like Avicennia (grey mangrove or white mangrove), which can withstand saline water, because the salinity in their area is high.
31-year-old Aparna Dhara resides in the Indian Sundarbans’ Lakshmipur village in Kakdwip Block with her husband, two boys (ages 16 and 12), and in-laws. Aparna and her husband are mostly paddy farmers, but they also have a little business where they sell poultry goods and raise some vegetables. Aparna’s home has been destroyed twice after Cyclone Amphan in May 2020. She says, “Earlier there were no trees around our house or on the banks. As a result, high tides would break the banks resulting in water entering our houses and leading to huge devastation.”
NGO NEWS made women as green warriors
Many people, including Aparna, have built nurseries and planted hundreds of mangrove trees in and near the Sundarbans. Today, people are benefiting from mangroves by using them as a natural bio-shield, to fortify their embankments, and to produce wood goods. Due to the work of NGO Nature Environment and Wildlife Society (NEWS), which turned these women into “green warriors,” mangrove afforestation led by indigenous women has been made possible.
Until 2009, in Sundarbans, NGO NEWS was engaged in various activities like tiger straying and generating livelihood activities. Recalling their work, Ajanta Dey, Joint Secretary and Programme Director at Nature Environment and Wildlife Society said,
NGO NEWS tested a community-led plantation strategy with local women in three villages between 2007 and 2009 to transition from plantation, a one-time job, to afforestation for developing a forest and restoring mangroves.
Focus of NGO NEWS shifted to mangrove afforestation
On May 25, 2009, cyclonic storm Aila struck eastern India and southern Bangladesh. Only a tail of Aila touched Sundarbans and part of Kolkata and moved to Bangladesh but it caused heavy damage in the area. In the words of Ms Dey, crocodiles were inside the villages, Aila washed away fishes, and houses were destroyed like someone pressed them with a thumb.
It’s after Cyclone Aila, the focus of NGO NEWS shifted to mangrove afforestation and community-led mangrove plantation with the message, if you need to live here, you have to protect the mangroves.
mangrove plantation across 183 sites in Sundarbans
Soon after the NGO mobilised funds, did risk mapping and from July 2010 to 2015, they did mangrove plantation across 183 sites in Sundarbans, covering 4,586 hectares of land. Over the years, 22 more sites have been added, covering an additional 180 hectares of land.
Nurseries were created at each site so that women involved in plantations are attached to the tree from the start. Currently, only 8-10 nurseries exist at other sites, the plantation is completed and now trees are growing into the forest. Central nursery at Manmathanagar where 54 local women are growing different kinds of mangrove saplings. Women like Tumpa Jana believe it’s their responsibility as the inhabitants of
Sundarbans to preserve and protect the delta for future generations.
Women wear green saree at work known as green brigade
A group of women in Kakdwip Block who work on the plantation are known as the “green brigade” because they wear green sarees to work. According to Ms. Dey, the green brigade is the success story of the community governance in ecosystem management that we are trying to accomplish.
The NGO pays women for the plantation and nurturing process. Once the saplings grow into plants, NEWS work towards income generation of people from the mangroves and mangrove value chain. Villagers get honey, crabs, fishes, shrimps, and other elements from mangroves.
Women of Sundarbans have learnt the importance of mangrove plantation and the lessons are etched in their minds. Purnima Dhara, a woman at the Manmathanagar nursery said, “A tree is life. The mangroves have sustained the Sundarbans. It will not survive without the mangroves, and if the Sundarbans doesn’t exist, neither will humans. So, while the Sundarbans are important for all of humanity, mangroves are important for the Sundarbans.”
