In The Hungry Tide, humans have both a symbiotic and an antagonistic relationship with nature. The Sundarbans are an inviting yet deadly place for human society. As Kanai remembers, Sir Daniel Hamilton came from “harsh and rocky Scotland” and believed that “even mud” could be conquered (42). When he saw the vast, uninhabited Sundarbans, he was determined to place humans there, despite the dangers of “tempests and tides, tigers and crocodiles” (42). He imagined the islands as a utopia for land-starved Indians. Though they were besieged by predators, early settlers pressed on, killing tigers and cutting down trees for farmland. Sir Daniel’s struggle had been to harness the power of the land by changing it forever. Many years later, the settlers on Morichjhapi want the same thing: a place to grow crops and raise families, cut off from a society that shunned them.

Piya experiences both the heights of man’s relationship with nature as well as the inescapable dangers. In this isolated, dangerous part of the world, she is able to observe the freshwater dolphins she has longed to more fully study. The Sundarbans, Piya tells the reader, is “a floating biodome filled with endemic fauna and flora” (104).