Sunderbans National Park

Area: 1,330sq km

Status: World Heritage Site & Biosphere Reserve

Established: 1984

Nearest Airport: Dum Dum Airport (Calcutta) 166km

Nearest Railhead: Canning 105km

Best Time to Visit: November to February

The holy Ganga journeys down the Himalayas and flows along India’s vast monotonous plains into the state of West Bengal. Towards the southern tip of the state, the land and the Bay of Bengal break out into a lively welcoming fandango to form a fresco of tangled mangrove swamps – the Sunderbans. The Sunderbans are spread out over an area of 16,500sq km in the prostrate delta towards the mouth of the Ganga, and form the world’s largest estuarine forests that constitute 80% of India’s total mangrove swamps. A World Heritage Site, the Sunderbans are also amongst the richest biosphere reserves in the subcontinent.

The silt deposit islands on the Sunderbans Delta are connected to the mainland through a labyrinthine waterway system, with some islands being practically impenetrable. This has turned out to be a boon in disguise because the ecology of the area and these fecund marshlands, wired in thick foliage, are able to support an astonishing variety of plant and animal life. Twenty-six of the fifty broad mangrove types found in the world, thrive in the Sunderbans. In order to preserve this clearly unique biosphere, the area between River Hooghly and the River Teulia was declared a National Park in the year 1984. The protected reserve covers a stretch of 1,330sq km, and also constitutes the core zone of the National Park.

Compared to other reserves in the world, this park has the largest population of Bengal tigers and also abounds in salt water crocodiles, olive Ridley turtles, Gangetic dolphins, chitals (spotted deer), fishing cats, wild boars, otters, rhesus macaques, monitor lizards, snakes, innumerable fishes, crabs, lobsters, shrimps, worms and a host of birds including kingfishers, storks, herons, Brahmin ducks, ibise, water fowl and egrets, to name only a few.

Getting to the Sunderbans is no mean feat. The closest airport is the Dum Dum Airport in Kolkata, at a distance of 166km from the Sunderbans. The nearest railhead, at a distance of 105km, at Canning, is not close either to this elusive destination. From Canning you have to reach Sonakhali, from where the adventure takes on another dimension altogether. You must now take a boat ride that lasts a good six to seven hours, to Gosaba. This is followed by a rickshaw ride to Pakhirala from where yet once again a boat ferries you across to Sajnekhali – the base of the Sunderbans National Park.

At a distance of 50km from the National Park, Gosaba is the nearest town. Many travellers find it more convenient to take a bus from Kolkata to Sonakhali or Basunti via Babu Ghat. It is also possible to hire your own private boat from Canning! For the uninitiated, the journey provides the rites of passage to rural Bengal.

Though the National Park boasts of the largest number of tigers, spotting one effortlessly is not half as easy. That human existence is oftentimes at the mercy of the tiger population is evident from the fact that roughly 20 man-eating cases are reported every year. Pretty much a land where the jungle law reigns supreme, where only the fittest are meant to prevail.

The islands are inundated twice every day due to tidal action! It is interesting to see how the tiger, like the other life forms, has adapted to this habitat against such odds. The Sunderbans tiger is an adept swimmer, can survive on brackish water, and is also known to feed on fish and sea turtles.

Though you may cruise around the maze of islands, waiting with bated breath to catch a fleeting glimpse of the beautiful cat you may or may not see, your odyssey shall nevertheless be a memorable one, with many coloured kingfishers diving for their kill and the curious life of a myriad tiny creatures weaving their own magic into it.

Lodges at Sunderbans