1. Shrimp farming dominates the landscape between Khulna and Mongla. Saline river water is pumped into the fields to make suitable condition for shrimp. 2. Winter cranes look for food in a dried shrimp pond. With high saline content, these lands are not the best for agriculure. They can also be the sources of effluents. 3. A few kilometers south of Mongla, on Possur, hundreds of fishermen are at work with finely-threaded nets. These nets do not allow small hatchlings to escape. 4. On this cold wintry day, she would be looking for tiny prawn seedlings (meen) for hours. The seedlings are to be sold to shrimp farms further inland.

5. The fishermen villages are just that- makeshift barely habitable places. 6. This scene may look idyllic, but - between joar and bhata - it's a muddy existence. The remnants of the forest cling on. 7. Across a khal, the forest starts earnestly, but the black trail of waste-oil left by ships and barges cling on to the green golpata leaves. They mark the high tide. 8. But beyond that a fog-laden and mysterious forest beckons us. A Bain tree stands precariously at the edge. The water remains turbid with sediments flowing from the south carried by the high tide. We see a river dolphin (shushuk), possibly a Ganges one, jumping out, but it was too quick for the camera.

9. The forest is almost impenetreble, the ground covered by Sundari roots. We follow an armed guard in Harbaria. Many Sundari trees is this area are affected with a disease (agamora). 10. And come across tiger paw prints. Opu measures a tiger-paw size. 11. The tiger tracks go through the golpata bush. The golpata was named for their round-shaped fruits. Bawalis collect golapata for thatching material. 12. In the end, this is what I remember: an idyllic place that is elusive, that refuses to be touched, and that requires safeguarding. The forest is striving to sustain the local communities using traditional methods, but it is not equipped to deal with the future population growth at its fringes.