Mini Buoys in the Indian Sundarban: a story of challenges, collaboration, and commitment
by Sumana Banerjee (Jadavpur University, India), Cai Ladd (University of Glasgow, UK)
What did it take to successfully deploy and retrieve Mini Buoys along the Indian Sundarban?
20 months, 26 zoom calls, 11 WhatsApp calls, countless WhatsApp texts, over 80 telephone calls, and around 15 people. Not to mention anxious moments, periods of self-doubt, sound decision-making abilities, trusting connections with local people, the camaraderie between Hub members, the spirit of commitment, and the undeniable role of communication. There were also numerous barriers to overcome - COVID-19 restrictions and infections, difficulty to access the sites, challenges to ensuring the safety of the Mini Buoys, and the mysterious case of the missing Mini Buoy… Despite these challenges the team successfully gathered a full dataset from 18 Mini Buoys over a period of 30 days. Eager to learn how we managed it? Read on.
To successfully deploy Mini Buoys, repeat as follows:
1. Select a site. In April 2020, when we were trying to figure out ways of working while still under lockdown, we resorted to using Google Earth Engine’s Timelapse to help us select sites for the Mini Buoy research. We were looking for mangrove edges that shifted from erosion to expansion along its length and found 10 sites that matched. We narrowed these down to 6 sites, based on our field experience we noted down accessibility, seasonal limitations, accommodation options, formal permissions, and human habitation for each of the sites. Because of COVID restrictions and rough weather in the delta, we then had to wait until January 2021 to embark on a scoping visit of these sites. After visiting all 6 sites, we noted access to the site, feasibility for deployment, monitoring plan, vegetation at the site, and our overall impression of how the fieldwork might run. From this exercise, we settled on 2 sites for the Mini Buoy deployments.
2. Plan the fieldwork. This stage faced a few more bumps in the road, owing to funding cuts that threatened the Mini Buoy deployments. Fortunately, Newcastle and Glasgow Universities stepped in to offer funding support, and we could start planning the fieldwork. Planning entailed assembling the loggers, sending them over by international courier from Wales to Kolkata, training to set up the loggers, seeking permission from authorities, consulting with the local people to narrow down on the most conducive days to carry out the deployment, and planning the logistics for the fieldwork. This was the phase when the Zoom calls increased, questions kept on emerging, and collaborative efforts were tested across time zones, disciplines, and backgrounds. Looking back, we believe our planning stage represents a key success of how to successfully plan fieldwork campaigns remotely.
3. Deploy Mini Buoys. On a fine Sunday morning in December 2021, one of us was getting ready to deploy the devices in the Indian Sundarban, and the other was waking up in Wales. Divided by geographies but united by technology, we completed a fieldwork campaign remotely using WhatsApp video calls. Deciding where to deploy the Mini Buoys was a bit of a challenge – it’s one thing to plot points on a map, and another to stand at that point and decide exactly where the mangrove edge is! Once we decided, it was a frenzy of activities – hammering the metal poles in, securing the Mini Buoys with cable ties, noting down GPS points, measuring the distance to the next Mini Buoys position, taking photographs, collecting soil samples, and marking the Mini Buoy locations by tying red cloth in the trees. The first site was easy to traverse as the tidal flat’s clayey sand was solid underfoot (Figure 1). The second site though was a nightmare. Not only were we knee-deep in mud (we had to constantly keep moving or otherwise risk getting stuck in the thick mud), the sharp edges of the pneumatophores and the gastropod shells cut our feet and declared to us that we were outsiders infiltrating their territory (Figure 2).
Mini Buoy in Site 1 in Indian Sundarban (Credit: Sumana Banerjee)
Mini Buoy in Site 2 of Indian Sundarban (Credit: Sumana Banerjee)
4. Monitor the Mini Buoys. Based on our observations from the scoping, and listening to local people, we realised how important round-the-clock monitoring would be to ensure the safety of the Mini Buoys. Two local persons from nearby islands were happy to keep an eye on the Mini Buoys for a period of 30 days (a huge thanks to Mr Ram Mahesh and Mr Chandramohan Jana!). They were provided with binoculars to keep an eye from afar, and whilst this may be have been possible for the second site that was in close proximity to a navigable channel, it wouldn’t work for the first site. We received daily updates from them, and learnt of wild boars and foxes investigating the loggers. Within a day, we were told a Mini Buoy and anchoring pole had gone missing. The plastic casing of the Mini Buoy and the metal pole was later found inside the mangrove forest. The curious case of the missing Mini Buoy was solved when we identified sickle marks on the Mini Buoy casing - evidence that someone had purposefully sabotaged it. We also learnt of another Mini Buoy that snapped away from its anchor. These damaged Mini Buoys were quickly replaced, and the survey continued. Near the end of the monitoring period, another of the buoys was damaged, this time by a curious wild boar as evidenced from puncture marks and cracks in the Mini Buoy casing.
5. Retrieve the Mini Buoys. The biggest challenge during retrieval was that some of us got infected with COVID before we were due to leave. Upon learning of this predicament, our field support crew volunteered to collect the Mini Buoys. Here we felt that relationships can achieve that which money cannot buy. We were extremely fortunate to have the support of Mr Sanjoy Mondal, Mr Gopal Mondal, Mr Avijit Mridha, Mr Shankar Naskar, Mr Mahadeb Gayen, and Mr Samir Biswas who undertook the retrieval, whilst neatly labelling and packing them in separate boxes and personally delivering it to us.
Our experience demonstrates the importance of effective communication in completing fieldwork campaigns. One of us was familiar with the technology, the other was familiar with the delta surroundings and challenges. Discussions helped us learn from one another, ensuring that we didn’t assume or make mistakes, and that we could share in our anxieties and successes. There were moments of self-doubt, however it was worth all the time and trouble as we obtained a unique dataset on the tides, currents, and waves that sculpt the Indian Sundarban mangrove forests. “Collaboration means spending less time achieving metrics of performance and more time nurturing relationships”. We believe that relationships were the foundation of our success, and serve as a template for how international and interdisciplinary research can create something amazing.
Collaboration was critical to our success (Credit: Sumana Banerjee)
You might also like:
The video: Mini Buoys in Indian Sundarban Delta Virtual Scoping
The article: Sustainability at the Crossroads
To sign up for our newsletter: Delta Digest