by Debbie L. Miller
Scene One: A tea shop in a village on the edge of the Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary, in Bangladesh, mid-morning. Saima Hoque is a 24-year-old female Bangladeshi zoology graduate student in wildlife conservation at a university in Dhaka, the capital. Jalahar Gopal is a 52-year-old Bangladeshi Forest Guard from a village near the Sundarbans. He completed high school. Abul Kahir is an uneducated Bangladeshi man.
SAIMA HOQUE
The obligation to protect tigers should be our primary concern.
JALAHAR GOPAL
Miss, have you visited this area before?
SAIMA HOQUE
School trips and on holiday with my parents.
JALAHAR GOPAL
Your parents are — ?
SAIMA HOQUE
Professors at university. In Dhaka.
JALAHAR GOPAL
So, you have never wanted for food, shelter, clothing? And, I trust you are comfortable in your accommodations here?
SAIMA HOQUE
Sir, I’m not some spoiled princess, if that’s what you’re on about.
JALAHAR GOPAL
