Moualis, traditional honey collectors, are less active this year than last, because of the extensive aggression of bandits in the Sundarbans.
According to Keramat Mallik, the assistant conservator of forests of Burigoalini Range which lies in the Sunderbans West Zone, the scourge of banditry has discouraged honey collectors from venturing into the forests.
On the first day of the honey gathering season on April 1, just 34 teams of collectors had bought Boat License Certificates (BLC) compared with 40 at the start of the season last year. As of yesterday, honey collectors had collected 42 BLCs compared with 50 the same time last year, Keramat said.
Last year the government made Tk1,077,000 selling permits for the Burigoalini Range alone, records show. The range is considered the largest honey zone in the forest.
Keramat said he hoped more permits would be bought during the honey gathering season that ends on June 30. He said government revenues would drop if collectors continued to stay away from the forest.
Monirul Islam, a mouali from Burigoalini village in Sathkhira district, confirmed that a fear of bandits had demoralised honey gatherers: “For two years my family and I have avoided honey gathering in the forest because of growing incidents of bandit attacks.”
Despite the risk of facing prowling tigers, honey gatherers traditionally forage deep into the mangrove forest in search of honeycombs. But where tigers have failed to scare them away, criminals have succeeded.
Tiger attacks are the traditional hazard for honey collectors. This part of the Sundarbans is home to a large population of the legendary predators and has witnessed a significant number of tiger-human conflicts.
Monirul said he lost his elder brother Abu Hasan during a honey gathering expedition to the forest in 2005.
Honey gathering in the Sundarbans takes place in the months of April, May and June and is regulated by the Forest Department.
Forest Department BLCs cost Tk7,000 per boat with a crew of seven to nine aboard, and stipulate a maximum honey gathering allowance of 75 kilogrammes of honey per person. Each permit is valid for a month.
It is an acknowledged weakness of the Forest Department’s permit system that most honey gatherers collect as much as twice their stipulated allowance.
Keramat said the number of forest guards and officials was tiny compared with the vast size of the Sundarbans, making it difficult to monitor the mangrove forest effectively.
Illegal honey gatherers, who do not have permits, are also known to operate during the collection season.
According to the Forest Department, some 640,000kg of honey and honeycombs are extracted from the Sundarbans every year.
Half a million people live in the vicinity of the Sundarbans. Eighty percent of them live off forest commodities at both subsistence and commercial levels.