The year is 2018, and we are walking through thick, wet clay, without any terra firma of the kindwe are accustomed to.We are trying to access one of the hundreds of chars—sandy, low-lying river islands located where the Ganga, known locally as the Hooghly River, meets the Bay of Bengal. The mouth of the delta is known asthe Sundarbans(or Sundarban in Bangla), createdby the waters that flow through the land and the precious gift of mudthey bring. The entire area is made of clayey silt, carried down from the mountains by the rivers over millennia. Sundarbanis a dynamic landscape where the distinction between land and water is blurred and farming and fishing are inseparable in building the livelihoods of people