The ever-changing biodiversity, that is the Sundarban Islands of Bangladesh, is the setting for Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. The vast array of islands, rivers, and the infinite sea are in a continuous battle, “a terrain where the boundaries between land and water are always mutating, always unpredictable” (Ghosh 18). Man must not only be wary of the water, for it threatens to overtake his home and life, but the original inhabitants of the islands whom seek out clear retribution for the destruction man has caused. In this novel, Ghosh explores the lines between environmentalism and human rights, and just how in the Sundarban Islands man is being dispossessed in favor of the creatures that reside there. There is a clear line being drawn in The Hungry Tide, between the environmentally conscious groups and that of the deprived, expelled people whom came to southern Bangladesh in hopes for a better life. Amitav Ghosh explores this prospect through the development of two of the main characters Piya Roy and Fokir. Piya Roy, a nomadic American of Bangladesh ancestry, was raised in Seattle and plans to make her great feat as a marine biologist studying the Irrawaddy dolphin (orcaella brevirostris). Piya is an emblem of the green politics that has forged the Sundarban Islands. “This island has to be saved for its tree, it has to be saved for its animals, it is part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers, which is paid for by people all around the world” (Ghosh 216). She strives to empathize and appreciate the unique culture surrounding her as well as its people, but is inhibited by her own morals and obligations that come with being a first world citizen. An example of this would include Piya’s confrontation with the villagers who snare a tiger inside a mud hut, before viciously burning the animal alive in retribution of their deceased villagers and livestock slaughtered by the creature. Although Piya’s attempts to stop this