VIDEO: In the Shadow of the Tiger

Hub members Niki Black and Maggie Roe have worked with Swastik Pal, a documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Kolkata, India. Together, they have co-developed a short film, ‘In the Shadow of the Tiger’. The film, based on the honey-gathering communities in the Sundarbans, focuses on the cultural heritage and creative representations of delta communities.

Swastik has many years of experience working in the Sundarbans. For his collaboration with Living Deltas, he spent several weeks on the islands, accompanying honeygatherers in the forest and their home villages.

Together, they identified increasing environmental and socio-economic pressures impacting these communities, including climate change weather extremes, competition for resources from tigers and humans, COVID-19, legal and illegal practices, and licencing and regulations, all threatening the ability of forest peoples to sustain livelihoods and particularly threatening the cultural practices of the honey gatherers.

This film captures the story of contemporary honeygatherers, portrayed in some of Swastik’s powerful visuals and soundtrack, embedded with text from LD researchers.