Sandeshkhali

A small island in the Sundarban delta in West Bengal’s North 24-Parganas district has been at the centre of BJP-TMC politics in the state. On January 5, a team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) went to Sandeshkhali-I to raid the home of Sheikh Shahjahan, a local strongman and Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader, in connection with the ongoing investigation into alleged irregularities in the state’s public distribution system.

Shahjahan’s supporters attacked the ED team and injured three officials. They also helped Shahjahan escape — he remains on the run. On February 8, some local women carrying brooms and sticks blocked the main road in Sandeshkhali and demanded the immediate arrest of Shahjahan and his two aides, Shiba Prasad Hazra and Uttam Sardar, whom they accused of sexual abuse and harrassment.

“They would pull my sari and touch me inappropriately. I kept quiet because I knew what would happen if I protested,” one of these women told The Indian Express. The next day, women protesters attacked Hazra’s properties and set fire to his poultry farm which they said had been set up on illegally grabbed land.

Sandeshkhali is one among the hundreds of islands in the Sundarban delta, where the Ganga-Meghna-Brahmaputra system falls into the Bay of Bengal. It is surrounded by a web of tidal waterways, rivers, canals, and creeks lined with mangrove patches. The island’s water ecosystem is rich in nutrients, and ideal for farming fish. The 2011 Census recorded about 49% Hindus, 30% Muslims, and 15% Christians in Sandeshkhali-I block. Around 30% of the non-Muslim population were Scheduled Castes (SC) and 26% Scheduled Tribes (ST). Sandeshkhali island itself is mostly inhabited by SC and ST farmers and fisherfolk.