Jungle Nama is a graphic verse novel written by Indian author Amitav Ghosh and illustrated by Pakistani-American artist Salman Toor.

[4][5][6][7] The book was first published on 12 February 2021 by Fourth Estate India and then in Great Britain on 11 November 2021 by John Murray Press.

[2][3] They are divided by three main rivers, the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna, which branch to form a major wetland that discharges into the Bay of Bengal.

[2] The Sundarbans are a UNESCO World Heritage site with four protected areas being held under reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary.

[2] This major weather events and climate change has resulted in habitat loss, saltwater intrusion (sea water moving further inland), sea-level rise and the submerging of islands.

[2][9] The region also experiences social pressures including poverty, illegal immigration, climate refugees, and government oversight.

[1] Jungle Nama is a loose reworking of this legend, translated to English and written in a payer-style meter which replicates the flow of the original myth.

[1][3] Ghosh attributes the inspiration of Jungle Nama to a trip he took to a remote Sundarbans Island with a group of local villagers in 2000.

[2] Together they travelled on rowboats and performed a Bon Bibi puja (ceremonial worship) on a mudbank next to a fresh set of tiger pawprints.

The locals of the Sundarbans prayed for protection and in response two powerful beings, Bon Bibi, and her brother Shah Jongoli, arrived from Arabia.

Much later, Dhona, a rich but greedy merchant, was not content with his wealth so he planned to exploit the southern jungle for honey, wax and wood.

His equally wealthy brother Mona urged him against the idea insisting that they already had enough wealth, and that it was not worth facing the tigers of the jungle.

Dhona claimed he had nothing to offer but Dokkhin Rai insisted he was wrong declaring he needed to sacrifice Dukhey as a trade for a bounty from the jungle.

Bon Bibi taught Dokkhin Rai to use syllables and meter to restrain his appetite and ensured he repay his debts to Dukhey with a bounty greater than Dhona's.

Dhona offered her fine food and fabrics, but Dukhey's mother wept for her son and asserted that riches could not replace him.

[9][12][10] According to literary critic Shreevatsa Nevatia, the text asserts that the Sundarbans are facing the harsh effects of climate change.

[2][11] Nevatia insist that the character Dhona's desire to pillage the southern forest and retrieve a new bounty is a metaphor for how humans currently treat the earth.

[11] In an interview for India Today,[11] Ghosh argues that the story is also an allegory for the way capitalism has caused materialism which has produced the climate crisis which he predicts will end humankind as we know it.

[3] The graphic book in verse is an assembly of images and text allowing the novel to be both seen and read (2,5) and includes illustrations by New-York based artist Salman Toor.

Dr Supantha Bhattacharyya, an Associate English Professor, asserted that Ghosh's poetry was “somewhat uneven”, yet the overall story was a well-developed retelling.

For this reason, Ghosh aimed to produce new forms to discuss climate change, including artwork, music and performance.

[9] On March 2 and 3, 2022, the Centre for Experimental Ethnography at the University of Pennsylvania presented a theatrical English stage performance of Ghosh's Jungle Nama with music by Ali Sethi.