An Alternative Approach for Sustainable Management of Indian Sundarbans: Synthesizing Traditional Knowledge, Geoheritage, and Sacred Iconography in a Mangrove Landscape

The man-environment relationship has evolved heterogeneously in different landscapes. As the capitalist market economy and majority-appeasement politics have interfered in the lives of traditional forest dwellers in an unwary manner worldwide, it has threatened the latter’s existence. Approaches to managing forest landscapes have become more and more exclusionary and top-down since the colonial times ignoring the traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) that has been surmised from the lived experience for ages by the indigenous populace. Against this backdrop, the present chapter aims to provide insights into a considerably more inclusive and bottom-up approach to the conservation of the mangrove landscape of Indian Sundarbans by integrating TEK, geo-culture, and sacred iconographies of the region. The initiatives of incorporating ethnobotanical knowledge, geoheritage, and totemic values of the sacred landscapes into sustainable mangrove management were considered about the secular space of Indian Sundarbans through ethnographic content evaluation, critical review of literature, and iconographic analysis. Findings reveal that many mangrove wildlife (both flora and fauna) and sites are symbolized as well as idolized here and integrated into the pious activities of the rural people. TEK on several non-timber forest products were also found to be greatly connected to their survival. Besides, a few remarkable sites of this region, such as the Gangasagar, are famous as pilgrimage destinations nationwide. However, the iconic, symbolical, and indexical meanings of these attributes are asymmetrical among different parts and communities of the Sundarbans, for example, the level of acceptance and socio-ecological influences of local deities, such as Bonbibi and Dakshin Ray, as protectors of mangroves and mangrove-based livelihoods. It was realized from this in-depth study that appropriate incorporation of this ethnocultural knowledge and iconographic as well as religious values into the contemporary environmental planning and management paradigms would certainly facilitate the attainment of sustainable development in these fragile landscapes.