Through the detailed unpacking of a colonial era fishing permit, known as the Boat License Certificate (BLC), operationalized in the Sundarbans National Park, this paper argues that some of the most exciting contributions of conservation work in India could be work that contends with the excruciatingly boring, bureaucratic, and pedantic work of paperwork. This would entail undoing an archaic set of fines, fishing licences and boat permits that have, over the years, generated a fearful regime that ‘incorporates illegality.’ BLCs not only convert the forest into a hostile environment, plunge Sundarbans fishers into new forms of inequality, but are also counterproductive to the goal of conserving the forest ecosystem. This ‘fishy’ business of fishing permits—closely interlinked to party politics and vote-bank politics—is something that all local, national, and international conservation organisations as well as the West Bengal Forest Department are aware of in the context of a global conservation hotspot. So why is it then that not a single conservation organisation is interested in tackling a regime of colonial licences that do not benefit the ecosystem or the fishing community? This paper suggests that conservation work in the Sundarbans, and in other national parks in India, is deeply depoliticized. In order for it to be genuinely transformative, it needs to contend with the boring work of paperwork.