Crack down urgently on Sundarbans’ bandits

The forest-dependent people of the Sundarbans once feared tigers and crocodiles, but now they live in perpetual fear of the bandits of the jungle. Terrified of these criminals, they are reluctant to enter the forest. The robbers sometimes take them hostage to extract ransom, and at other times force fishers to poison different waterways of the Sundarbans to catch huge amount of fish in a short time. On Saturday (20 September), media reports revealed that many of those who had earlier surrendered to the authorities promising to leave banditry have returned to the old profession, increasing the number of active bandit groups at least to 14, including the notorious ‘Dulabhai gang'.

According to information received, after 32 bandit groups surrendered in November 2018, the government declared the Sundarbans free of banditry. But media investigations say that, taking advantage of last year’s turmoil over the government’s downfall, at least 14 gangs including the Dulabhai gang have become active in the Sundarbans again. They regularly kidnap forest-dependent people at gunpoint and extort ransom. At least 11 bandit groups that previously surrendered have gone back to crime. Supporting the bandits are a class of influential coastal fish traders locally known as “company mahajans”. Under their orders, fishers are forced to poison the rivers and canals of the world's biggest mangrove forest only to catch more and more fishes in a short time. These traders obtain clearance from the bandits and often send ransom payments if their fishers are kidnapped. That supplies the bandits with money and arms, and the poison damages the Sundarbans’ environment.

Honey collectors and golpata (one kind of very thick leaves) cutters also have to pay ransom to the robbers. A honey-collector of the Sundarbans, from a village in Koyra upazila, said that alongside crocodiles in the water and tigers on land, they now also fear bandits. Seven honey-collectors from their boat were taken hostage by a bandit gang and they had to pay Tk 52,000 in ransom. He said that unless the area is made free of robbers, they will not go into the forest in the next honey-gathering season.

Investigations have uncovered several such alarming incidents. Forest-dependent fishers allege that not only do they have to pay off the forest bandits, but even forest guards charged with their protection are regularly bribed. Around the Sundarbans roughly two million poor people live, wholly or partly dependent on the forest for their livelihoods. People from Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira districts and other areas along the Sundarbans’ fringe go deep into the forest at different times of the year to collect fish, crabs, golpata and honey. Over the past decade the income these communities derive from the Sundarbans has gradually declined. Now, gripped by fear of bandits, these forest-dependent citizens of the state, which has forsaken them for years, cannot enter the forest. their earnings are falling further and they are forced to endure a semi-starved existence.

The lawlessness of the Sundarbans’ is not only a local threat but a national one. Being encouraged by the example of impunity enjoyed by the Sundarbans' bandits, those who have acquired illegal weapons could one day begin raiding other parts of the country. Therefore, by any means necessary these bandits must be suppressed now once and for all. Law-enforcement agencies and the administration must act urgently. Theft, robbery and snatching have risen across the country since the July 2024 mass uprising, and we are now seeing the same pattern in the Sundarbans also. The authorities must also investigate how those who had surrendered before returned to banditry and why.