Sundarban, the only tiger inhabited mangrove forest on the planet and a world heritage site, has been a land of unjust and unlawful deprivation, harassment and torture of the forest dependent people, especially the fishers. Abuses, physical assaults, confiscation of boats, nets, permits and licenses without any seizure memo, imposition of hefty fines without showing justified cause – ever since the imposition of tiger reserve Sundarban has been turned into a fiefdom of forest officers. The forest dependent communities of Sundarban have been turned into trespassers in their own land. This situation has been continuing even after the passage of the Forest Dwellers’ Rights Act in the parliament of India in 2006. Dakshinbanga Matsyajibi Forum (DMF), as a trade union of small scale fishers in Sundarban, has been deeply involved with the struggle of fishing communities and other forest dependent people to defend their livelihood and human rights. The struggle has been a long drawn one with its ups and downs. On a number of occasions the forest department had to back off in the face of united mass movement of fishing communities. But then, in a short time, the forest department resumed its misdeeds. As such it has become increasingly evident that any permanent stop to the heinous acts of the forest department and its staff would require strict and unambiguous policy decisions with rigorous community based implementation. Blatant and unabated violation of basic human rights and of forest dwellers’ rights enshrined respectively in our constitution and Forest Dwellers’ Rights Act called for an all round strategy to take on the violators. DMF, in collaboration with DISHA and ActionAid convened an workshop with the participation of ICAN, AIFFRS and MASUM. Besides DMF members and leaders working in Sundarban and some concerned citizens, respected social workers Meher Engineer and Samar Bagchi participated in the workshop. The workshop was attended by activists from jharkhand, Odisha, Chattisgar, Rajasthan and Delhi besides West Bengal. Sasanka Dev, Secretary DISHA, welcomed the participants. He mentioned Disha’s involvement with the struggle for livelihood rights of forest dwellers in Sundarban, especially with the struggles of the fishing communities. He stressed on the need to have a proper strategy and concerted effort. A presidium comprising of Sasanka Dev, Samar Basu Mallick and Soumen Ray was constuted to conduct the workshop. The workshop started after a brief self-introduction by the participants . Pradip Chatterjee, President DMF, through a ppt presentation set the context of the workshop by mentioning a brief history of Sundarban with its geo-morphology, ecology, mangrove food chain and the present situation with fish stock and fishing. He laid bare the unjust and unlawful restrictions imposed on the livelihood of forest dependent people in Sundarban including the fishing communities. He concluded with a request to the participants to work out a proper strategy to take on the violators. It was followed by an open house discussion where both activists and experts exchanged their views regarding the situation in Sundarban and placed their opinions and suggestions before the house. Dipak Dholakia, member ICAN, from Delhi, stressed on the rights of forest dependent people of Sundarban and its linkages with nature and natural resources. He mentioned the need to have right strategy, right organisation and right support. he also mentioned the need of getting support from non-fishing or non forest dependent communities. Role of people’s organization and need to carry on continuous struggle were highlighted in his deliberations. Viren Lobo, Convener, ICAN Forest Sub-group raised the question of Gram Sabha’s role in FRA implementation. He said that since fishers do not live inside mangrove forest and also since in the villages outside the forest their number is too little compared to other inhabitants who are not dependent on the forest, the strategy should be to convene forest users’ gram sabha to decide on the claims.. Tusher Das, member, Community Forest Rights Learning and Advocacy, spoke on Community Rights of the forest dependent people. Starting from FRA and Wild Life Protection Amendment Act 2006, he mentioned points of the Acts and need of implementation of these acts in Sundarban. Describing the people’s role through Gram Savas on implementation of their rights on forests in Garchirali in Maharashtra, Niyamgiri in Odisha and Maldari (pastoral community) in Kutch in Gujarat he emphasised the role of the community.. Fe stated that the changes in Prevention of Atrocities Act have been made particularly in the interest of the tribal people and that the forest rights had been included in the purview of this Act. He also mentioned that Joint Forest Management is not applicable where Community Rights were demanded and on the process of implementation. Biplab Mukherjee from MASUM stressed the need to address human rights violations in Sundarban by the forest department. He mentioned that MASUM is eager to help in the process. Xavier Kujur, member, Jharkhand Jungle Bachao Andolan (JBA), Advocate Atindra from Chhattisgarh, Biplab Mukherjee, Secretary, MASUM, Jayanta Basu, journalist from Kolkata, Ms. Arati-Kumar Rao, freelance journalist from Bangaluru, Karnataka participated in the interactions. Advocate Santanu Chacraborty from Kolkata, Ms. Surjamani from JBA, Jharkhand, Ambia Hossein from Sundarban and Shyamalendu from DISHA, commented on the issue. In the Way Forward Session Sasanka Dev, Jharna Acharya, Sanjay Basu Mallick, Viren Lobo, Tushar, Xavier, Dipak, Govinda Das, Milan Das, Soumen and Pradip spoke and the house planned future actions on the following issues – Forest Rights issues: Denial of forest rights in Sundarban should be given wider exposure among the civil society. Central government should be moved on this. Specihic steps should be taken at the ground level to submit claims of the forest dwellers including the fishers and the matter should be pursued in earnest. It is pertinent to build up strong movement of the fishing communities (who constitute large majority of forest dwellers) to push their claims forward. Human Rights issues: Violation of human rights in Sundarban by the forest department staff should be given wider exposure. Awareness programmes on human rights and training sessions on addressing human rights issues should be undertaken and planned. BLC issues: Though the recent arbitrary order of the forest department on BLCs has been suspended in the face of mass resistance, the issue should be pursued relentlessly and if needed legal action should be taken. Legal issues: Both Forest Rights and Human Rights issues need to be addressed on legal forum. Appropriate actions are to be decided through furWest bengal: Unjust and Unlawful Deprivations ther consultations. National Network to take forward forest rights in Sundarban: AIFFRS, through its network, may help in projecting the issue on national plane. There is a need to build up networks of forest dwellers of tiger reserves and mangrove forests. Next day the activists visited Sundarban and went into the forest on boat. Discussion on specific strategy to address the denial of rights of forest dwellers in Sundarban was continued on the boat and some decisions on the same were taken.