Eco-cosmopolitanism in the Sundarbans:
Human–Animal Encounters and Ecological Ethics in The Hungry
Tide
Jaypreethi.M1,
Dr. G. Vasuki 2
ABSTRACT
Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide offers a profound
exploration of the Sundarbans as a site where human, animal, and
environmental lives intersect in fragile interdependence. This
paper, “Eco-cosmopolitanism in the Sundarbans: Human–Animal
Encounters and Ecological Ethics in The Hungry Tide”, examines how
the novel articulates an eco-cosmopolitan vision that situates a
local ecological struggle within the wider framework of global
environmental ethics. Through its portrayal of human–animal
encounters, the novel challenges anthropocentric worldviews. The
Irrawaddy dolphin, central to Piya’s scientific and empathetic
engagement, exemplifies possibilities of coexistence, while the
Royal Bengal tiger embodies tensions between fear, reverence, and
conservation. These encounters foreground ethical dilemmas of
survival, where human displacement and ecological preservation
collide. The novel’s evocation of the Morichjhapi massacre
underscores this conflict, exposing the biopolitical realities of
conservation and human vulnerability.
By weaving myth, folklore, and scientific discourse, Ghosh
destabilizes human-centered narratives and advocates for an
ecological ethics grounded in interdependence and relational
responsibility. This study argues that The Hungry Tide extends a
cosmopolitan ecological imagination in which the fates of humans and
nonhumans are inseparably entwined, compelling readers to
reconfigure ethical responsibility in the Anthropocene.
Keywords: Eco-cosmopolitanism, human–animal encounters, ecological
ethics, Sundarbans, Anthropocene, Amitav Ghosh.
