Sundarbans kidnapping for ransom
Data > Sundarbans kidnapping for ransom
A hand-coded record of kidnapping-for-ransom incidents in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, February 2015 to October 2026, built from Bangla and English news reports: 63 incidents involving 439 people where a number is reported, with ransom amounts, and 9 records of the protection payments armed groups charge forest workers to enter.
Download the dataset (0.5 MB, zip, from Zenodo) · Code and documentation
| Source | News reports: Prothom Alo, Kaler Kantho, Samakal, The Daily Star and bdnews24 |
|---|---|
| Covers | February 2015 to October 2026 |
| Size | 63 incidents, 9 protection-payment records, and 15 reports held aside |
| Format | CSV tables, with a documentation file, the code that draws the chart and map, and the map boundaries |
| Version | 1.0.1, published 29 October 2026 |
| Licence | Data: CC BY 4.0. Code: MIT. Map boundaries: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics via HDX, CC BY-IGO. News reports remain their publishers' property and are not redistributed. |
| DOI | 10.5281/zenodo.23766432 (all versions) · 10.5281/zenodo.23766433 (this version) |
What it is
Fishers, crab collectors, honey gatherers and woodcutters who work in the Sundarbans forest have long been abducted by armed groups and held until their families pay. Armed groups also charge them to enter the forest at all: a fee per boat or per person, paid before a trip. No official dataset of these incidents exists. This one is built from news coverage, mostly in Bangla, so that the size, prices and timing of this protection market can be measured, including before and after the 2016 to 2018 surrender campaign.
In 2015 there were 14 reported incidents and 130 people taken. From 2019 to 2023 only one incident was reported, after the surrender of armed groups. Reports return after August 2024 and reach 21 incidents and 159 people in 2026 up to 27 October. Of the 41 incidents whose report names a forest range, 30 are in the Satkhira range in the west. Reported ransom demands range from 20,000 to 300,000 Taka per person; fishers report entry fees of 4,000 to 20,000 Taka per boat.
No names are published. The dataset contains no names of victims, families or accused individuals, no group names that identify a person, and no article text: only links to the original reports and coded fields.
What it cannot be used to say
- It counts reported incidents. Many abductions are never reported, so the totals are a lower bound.
- Reporting changed over time. From 2025 many reports come from Coast Guard press releases about its operations, so part of the recent rise may be more reporting, not only more abductions.
- Ransom amounts come from press reports, often from relatives, and are not verified.
- Coverage depends on which outlets were searched and how their archives are indexed. The Coast Guard said it rescued 41 hostages between 12 February and 8 July 2026; this dataset has press reports for 33 of them.
- Only one incident was found for 2019 to 2023. That fits the surrender of armed groups, but quieter reporting could also explain part of it.
How it was checked
- Every article was read in full, then checked a second time by a script confirming that each coded number and place appears in the original text.
- Dates given only as a weekday ('last Friday') were worked out from the publication date and checked against a calendar.
- Where reports disagree, both versions are kept in the notes and the row is marked unconfirmed.
- A sample of rows was checked by hand against the articles before release.
What is in the file
Files
| File | What it holds |
|---|---|
data/clean/incidents.csv | One row per incident (63 rows). Every article was read in full and then checked by a script against the original text; rows where reports disagree or a key fact is missing are marked unconfirmed or disputed |
data/clean/protection_payments.csv | Reported fees charged to fishers, crab collectors, woodcutters and honey collectors for entry or protection (9 rows) |
data/raw/held_aside.csv | Reports that could not be dated, placed or checked well enough to include (15 rows) |
Columns
| Column | In file |
|---|---|
incident_id, event_date, date_type, date_precision, report_date, site_upazila, forest_range, place_detail, waters, n_abducted, n_boats, occupation, ransom_demanded_bdt, demanded_unit, ransom_paid_bdt, paid_unit, outcome, n_released, n_still_held_at_report, group_claimed, figure_source, confirmation, outlet, url, other_urls, notes | incidents.csv |
payment_id, period, date_precision, report_date, area, payer_occupation, amount_bdt, unit, n_groups, n_payers, what_for, demanded_or_paid, figure_source, outlet, url, notes | protection_payments.csv |
hold_id, url, reason_held_and_summary | held_aside.csv |
Key columns
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
date_precision | exact, derived_from_weekday (the article says e.g. 'last Friday'; the date is worked out from the publication date), approximate, month, year_inferred |
waters | forest (rivers and canals inside the forest) or coastal_sea (the sea just off it) |
confirmation | reported, unconfirmed (a key fact is missing or the article contradicts itself) or disputed (an official source contests it) |
site_upazila | The upazila of the abduction or holding site, filled only when the article names it. Victims' home villages are not used |
forest_range | The forest department range, as named in the article |
other_urls | Further reports of the same incident |
Cite
Azom, Kazi Affnann (2026). Sundarbans Ransom Tracker: kidnapping-for-ransom incidents in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, 2015-2026 (Version v1.0.1) [Data set]. Mercenomics. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23766433
The DOI above is for version 1.0.1. To always point to the latest version, use 10.5281/zenodo.23766432. Found an error? Report it on the Corrections page.