SUNDARBANS: The Beautiful Jungles

BY RITIKA

About Sundarbans

The place that derives its name from Sundari trees. The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language . The tidal rivers and mangrove forests provide habitats suitable for animals inhabiting tidal swamp areas. Numerous aquatic and semi-aquatic animals inhabit these forests.

Physiology of Sundarbans

A part of the world's largest delta formed by the confluence of the rivers Ganga, Brahmaputra and Meghna, the Sunderbans is a vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp stretching for about 160 miles along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary in West Bengal to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. Sprawled over an area of 4262 sq. kms in India, Sunderbans is the largest estuarine sanctuary in the world, and habitat to some of India's most amazing wildlife species. The mangrove-dominated Ganges Delta is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the largest single tract of mangrove forests of the world. Situated mostly in Bangladesh, India, has a small portion of it. 

This ecoregion is nearly extinct, the victim of large-scale clearing and settlement to support one of the densest human populations in Asia. Hundreds of years of habitation and exploitation by one of the world's densest human populations have exacted a heavy toll of this ecoregion's habitat and biodiversity.

Fauna Of Sundarbans

The Sunderban Tiger Project was formed in 1974 and covers an area of 2585 sq. kms, and is a national forest and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Home to the largest concentration of wild tigers in the world, the Sunderbans National Park in West Bengal received National Park status on May 4, 1984. The park comprises a network of estuaries, tidal rivers, and creeks intersected by many channels, with flat, marshy islands covered with thick forests in between. The forest at the Sunderbans Tiger Reserve is the only ecological habitat of the tiger of its kind not only in India, but also worldwide except in Bangladesh.

Sunderbans is home to an amazing variety of wild animals including spotted deer, monkeys, wild pigs, herons, white bellied eagles, kingfishers and about 270 Royal Bengal tigers. Occasionally, tigers of Sunderbans have been known to be man-eaters. It is believed that the uniqueness of the habitat and the lack of suitable prey have resulted in such unique behavioral trends of Sunderbans tiger. 

Besides the tiger, the reserve is home to diverse aquatic and reptile life forms including the endangered Olive Ridley sea turtle, Green Turtle, Hawk's Bill Turtle, hard-shelled Batgur Terrapin, King cobra, Pythons, Chequered killback, Estuarine Crocodile, Monitor and lizards like the Salvator lizard to name a few. A number of Trans-Himalayan migratory birds can also be spotted at Sunderbans.

Accessibility To Sundarbans

The best time to visit the Sunderbans Sanctuary and its surrounding region is from September to March.

Sunderban can only be accessed by waterways. There are several entry points to the Sunderbans, but the most popular and nearest railhead is at Port Canning, which is connected to Kolkata by suburban railway. Organized group trips start from Port Canning to reach Sunderbans.

About Sundarbans Popular Culture

The Sunderbans are celebrated through numerous Bengali folk songs and dances, often centered around the folk heroes, gods and goddesses specific to the Sunderbans. The area provides the setting for several novels by Emilio Salgari, (e.g. The Mystery of the Black Jungle). Part of the plot of Salman Rushdie's Booker Prize winning novel, Midnight's Children is also set in the Sundarbans. Kunal Basu's short story "The Japanese Wife" and the subsequent film adaptation also take place here. Most of the plot of prize-winning anthropologistAmitav Ghosh's 2004 novel, The Hungry Tide, is set in the Sundarbans. The acclaimed BBC TV series Ganges documents the lives of villagers, especially honey collectors, in the Sundarbans.