Kamot: The first academic investigation of human-shark conflict in Sundarbans

Abstract

This article is the first comprehensive scholarly introduction to the century-old conflict between humans and ‘Kamots’ (the local term for sharks) in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, India. Historically, humans predated on sharks, and sometimes, the sharks predated on humans. Utilizing a multispecies and knowledge system lens, this article explores the conflict between two species who effectively impact each other’s lives and waterscapes they share in the brackish contact zone of the Hooghly River. Primarily based on local knowledge system, we create some baseline information about this conflict and attempt to describe the local understanding of Kamot; incidents of Kamot bites and the circumstance of occurrence; the effect of these bites on the people, how they were treated, and finally attempt to identify the traumatogenic sharks of the region which might be associated with the bites.