Women inducted as tourist guides in the Sundarbans for the first time
For a start, four women are being trained jointly by the Forest Department and an NGO to act as guides, who will be placed on the boats that enter the tiger reserve, just like the male guides.
After Kanha, Corbett and Pench, now Sundarbans Tiger Reserve (STR) in Bengal also has women tourist guides. It is also the first wildlife reserve in Bengal to have women in a role considered a male preserve till now.
It was on September 14 that a community hall in the Sundarbans saw the breaking of the glass ceiling. Four women, residents of different villages in Gosaba block, were inducted as tourist guides in the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve by the Forest Department.
Sumana Mondal (21), Madhumita Mondal, Bhaswati Kamila Sarkar (34) and Bithika Ray (45) were part of a two-day training session, on September 14 and 15, organised by the STR and a wildlife NGO, Wildlife Protection Society of India. More training sessions are being conducted.
Tourist guides certified by the Bengal Forest Department are placed on the boats that enter the tiger reserve. There are 62 male guides in the STR. Now these four women will add to the fleet, working shoulder to shoulder with the men.
The guides do not get monthly salaries but a remuneration for a shift on one boat or launch. The rate is around Rs 600 for Indian tourists and Rs 1,200 for foreigners.
The Sundarbans, shut for tourists since April because of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be opened from October 1.
The women are being trained to sensitise tourists on the importance, and fragility, of the mangrove ecosystem, climate change and its impacts, man-animal interface (including the dichotomy of perennial coexistence yet being threatened by each other, a tussle for livelihood), among other issues. They are also being trained to dissuade tourists from littering the waterbodies with plastic.
Another important issue that the guides are being trained to tackle is tourists’ obsession with tigers. The mangrove delta has much more to offer. A sighting of the Irrawaddy dolphin, for example, is said to be worth a trip. There are over 100 species of birds. Then, there is the saltwater crocodile, the largest reptile in the world. Even simply coursing slowly along the narrow creeks on a boat or a launch is an experience to remember, just like it is for the backwaters of Kerala.
Multilingual communication capabilities are also being stressed upon as the guides would have to speak with tourists from across India as well as the world. After all, the Sundarbans (spread across India and Bangladesh) is the only mangrove forest in the world hosting tigers (as well as being the largest mangrove forest), and UNESCO recognises it both as a World Heritage Site and a biosphere reserve. They are being trained on communication skills in Bengali, English and Hindi.
The entry of women guides marked the beginning of an important chapter in the history of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve.
As Bhaswati Sarkar, one of the four guides, told a media outlet, “If a woman can become a pilot, drive a train why can’t I be a tourist guide in the Sundarbans?” Surely they can!
