The image, at its very least, makes you stare at the uncomfortable ease at which toxic substances, like plastic products, infilitrate spaces and ecosystems that are at the same time understood to be "protected" from the extensions of human activity.
If the researcher could work through the politics of plastic and its incongruous presence in a protected mangrove forest, especially in its almost comfortable presence in these spaces, would help the viewer engage with the photograph further.
This is a photograph that was taken by the ethnographer. The colour in the photograph is where the dramatic interplay of plastic and forest stands out and is most notable.
Perhaps the caption could give us more insight, if it has been established, how the plastic refuse got there? Is it refuse dumped elsewhere that is pushed out with the tides? Is it a factor of increased human activity in the mangrove forests?
On a different note, is sand mining an issue in the region?
The image is disurbingly easy on the eyes, stray plastic bottles, the rubber slipper, all carpeting the forest floor in an unhealthy balance with the roots and leaves of the mangrove forest. The tidal interplay of land, river and sea, is as much of an ecological marvel as it is a route for plastic, and as an extension the reach of human activity, that equally governs natural ecosystems.