![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Mangrove-planting-in-the-Sundarbans-credit-I-Behind-the-Ink-supplied-to-CNN-e1765962620131-1024x618..jpeg\")
Mangrove planting in the Sundarbans \u2013 credit, I-Behind-the-Ink, supplied to CNN<\/p>\n Mangrove planting in the Sundarbans \u2013 credit, I-Behind-the-Ink, supplied to CNN<\/p>\n
They are called \u201cswami khejos,\u201d translated to \u201cHusband Eaters.\u201d<\/p>\n
In reality, it\u2019s just a superstition, as it was the tigers of the Sundarbans forest that ate these husbands, not the women.<\/p>\n
This unique region of eastern India\/western Bangladesh contains the world\u2019s largest mangrove forest, and the 200 or so Bengal tigers that live there inhabit a watery world that they thrive in, consuming a diet of fish and crabs while swimming several miles at a time in search of prey.<\/p>\n
The translation above was provided to CNN<\/a> by the environmentalist and editor Arun Krishnamurthy, who reported on the extraordinary story of how these \u201ctiger widows\u201d have teamed up with young conservationists to help protect and restore the mangrove swamps, and, inadvertently, the tigers who widowed them.<\/p>\n \u201cThe women are working towards a cause that has disrupted their own life,\u201d Saurav Malhotra, a project leader at international nonprofit Conservation International, told CNN. \u201cIt\u2019s about restoring dignity and building resilience for these women and for the broader community.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not known how many tiger widows there are in the Sundarbans region, where villagers make much of their subsistence livelihoods through fishing the deep mangroves. But what is known is that this massive ecosystem enshrined as a UNESCO Natural Heritage Site is in danger.<\/p>\n Mangrove forests play crucial roles in the stability of coastal ecosystems. Their network of aerial roots help dampen storm surges, and they take up salt in their tissues that allow for a brackish water quality that\u2019s permissible to both freshwater and saltwater fish.<\/p>\n Deforestation, however, has the effect of taking bricks out of a wall: it\u2019s compromising this great swampy wall\u2019s integrity. Fewer trees means increasing salinity, which means fewer fish. It also means the strength of monsoon winds and waves is absorbed by smaller root systems, increasing the potential for flooded cropland and destroyed villages.<\/p>\n MORE MANGROVE NEWS: <\/strong>The Largest Landfill in Latin America has Been Turned into a Mangrove Forest<\/a><\/p>\n Restoring the mangroves allow the villagers of the region and the tigers to thrive. The social organization and youth rewilding movement I-Behind-the-Ink<\/a> is working with these tiger widows in the Jharkhali region of the Sundarbans, along the Matla River to restore 240 acres of mangrove forests.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no mean feat, and will require hundreds of thousands of trees, but villages in the area like Laskarpur and Vivekananda Palli are no longer protected by mangrove swamps. A single man-made embankment prevents floods from the ocean from destroying their homes. Time is, quite straightforwardly, of the essence.<\/p>\n