INTRODUCTION In recent years brackish water aquaculture has come much in the limelight because of its very high potentiality in production of prawns, particularly of Tiger Prawn (P. Menodon). West Bengal export of fishery products, which almost exclusively is in frozen prawn, has grown to more than Rs. 60 crores in the last decade from a mere Rs. 2.5 crores in 1973 (Bose, 1989 A5). West Bengal is fortunate to have naturally available seeds of Tiger Prawn in large quanti- ties (Bhowmick, 1993; Chakraborti et al., 1987). Tiger Prawn seeds are available throughout the year in varying quantities in some of the streams in the Ganga Estuary System (Mahapatra et al., 1993). A group of people locally known as the Meendhara is connected with the catching of tiger prawn seeds. Present endeavour is to point out the condition of the people who lie at the very base of the trade in prawn and are serving the country for enriching its coffer. The present work is done on the fisher folk living in the village Kamdebnagar under the Police Station Patharpratima in the district of South 24 Parganas of West Bengal. These fisher folk are special, they are locally known as Meendharas. They collect juvenile prawn and prawn seeds from brackish water. It is found that all the Meendharas of the village Kamdebnagar belong to a community known as Bagdi. Catching of the meen, that is the prawn seed, is not a new occupation to the people of Kamdebnagar. Fishing provided the people with livelihood even in the past. At present meen collection has become economic mainstay of the villagers, although it only provides for the bare level of subsistence. The soil in the Sunderban delta area is not always suitable for agriculture. Due to the sa- linity of soil agriculture is very difficult. Col- lection and cultivation of prawn is an alterna- tive means for subsistence in the area. Prawn cultivation not only provided them with ready cash but it appeared to be more paying than ag- riculture. The agricultural land is inundated with brackish water and is used for raising prawn after the harvest of paddy in winter. In the last two decades prawn rose into importance. In the process Indian Government took an initiative to export prawn in large scale to the foreign mar- ket. Large amount of money was invested for the purpose. A large number of people living in the coastal areas shifted their economy from ag- riculture to prawn seed collection and aquacul- ture. Anthropological methodology is followed for this work. Structured questionnaire was framed prior to the visit. Census, information on de- mography, literacy, occupation, income and other related data are collected by this method. For detailed knowledge interview, narrative and participant-observation methods are followed. Case study is made for in depth understanding of the problems. Information is gathered on the social system, economic condition and the ma- terial aspect of the profession of Meendharas. Special emphasis is given on the method of prawn collection, different implements used, account of profit and loss, health hazard and other problems related to the occupation. LOCATION AND AREA The village under study is within the district of South 24 Parganas, which lies in the extreme southeastern corner of the state of West Bengal. The district is bounded on the north by the dis- trict of Kolkata, on the east by the portion of north 24 Parganas, on the south by Bay of Ben- gal and on the west by the river Haora and Midnapore district. Total area of this district is 1960 sq. kms. The area is very poor in sweet water supply, so the agricultural return is not sufficient. Creeks, rivers and backwaters criss- cross the area. Communication is difficult. Eco- nomic growth is retarded in the area (De, 1994: 135). The characteristic feature of the area is that often tidal waves destroy the crop as well as the soil for cultivation. The saline invasion leaves the soil unfit for cultivation for a few sea- sons. In order to solve this problem often em- bankments were raised. One such embankment is present between the village Kamdebnagar and Uttar Gopalpur. This is cross bund type. It is the immigrants from outside who slowly A Study Among Some “Meendharas” of Sunderbans, West Bengal Ranjana Ray, Indranil Chakraborty and Nandini Bhattacharyya CHAPTER 4