Sapiens - Bottom-up approaches to extreme weather in the Sundarbans

Purno Chandra Mondal, a tourist boat operator who lives in the Sundarbans, is used to highlighting plants, animals, mudflats, forests, river islands, channels, and estuaries to visitors as they float past the area’s lush islands and forests.

But there is another side to the Sundarbans, one Mondal does not share on his tours. More than 4.5 million people live in the region’s forests, waterways, and islands.

Anthropologist Megnaa Mehtta believes policy makers and governments are ignoring the diverse human stories of the region as India and Bangladesh find ways to respond to climate change.

Mehtta is one of several scholars who believe there are other approaches possible—provided nations begin listening to the local people along with experts and scholars from the region. Hidden within the stories of Mondal and others living in the Sundarbans, she argues, are lessons about climate resilience that could have global implications.