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Paper short abstract:

This paper explores how Sundarban islanders express their historical convivialness with the landscape and its multispecies engagement in the form of folklore, myths and Jatran. It focuses on legitimizing these culturally imbibed conservation practices of locals in decolonising the landscape

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores how Sundarban islanders express their historical convivialness with the landscape and its non-human species, such as the tigers, the mangrove forest or the snakes. It will focus on how this interdependence has maintained an equilibrium between the human and non-human with a 'strained' coexistence, keeping out the spectatorship of the capitalists(stakeholders) on the landscape but focusing on the everyday environmentalism of the locals (Busher & fletcher). I shall emphasise the 'strained' relationship present in this diverse landscape that embodies the naturalness and realness of the Sundarbans conservation politics and the everyday struggle over an outsider's gaze, which is exotics and reductionist. This convivialness have evidence from the past in their local practices of folklore, myths and Jatran (folk theatre). The Bonbibir Johurnama have elements of stewardship on how the forest is a shared space between humans and tigers, and each should obey the rules to accommodate and appreciate the other.

Similarly, there are myths of venomous snakes annotating similar priorities in the landscape. The tale of Maa Manasa is weaved to acknowledge the significance of snakes such that the balance of nature is sustained. The paper further critiques the applicability of classical conservation practices, which has often demarcated the distinction between humans and non-humans and is a misfit in a marginal space like Sundarbans because these frameworks do not harken the indigenous/local knowledge and its practices associated with conservation. In contemporary times, these practices comprehend how the Sundarban islanders have ideated and have been practising equivalent convivial conservation for a long time. Hence, localizing governance of conservation practices will help give the decision-making power in the hands of the locals and decolonise the landscape for conservation research and practices.

It is still debatable who has the upper hand in claiming the territorial ownership: ‘the humans or the tigers' but certainly not a hegemonic stakeholder in making these exclusionary decisions.