Before a honey-collector walks into the mangroves he stops at a *than* — an open masonry shrine to Bonbibi, the forest woman who holds back the tiger-god Dakshin Rai. Pale green-grey distemper on the back wall, an oxblood floor, sky-blue plinths, unfired river-clay figures repainted every January.

Behind the idols, many shrines carry a painted mural of the forest itself: sundari trees, a tidal creek, the spikes of breathing roots. The shrine keeps a small flat picture of the place it protects you from.