Sundarbans Tigers and Shantiniketan Bags

It is always lovely to take a break and indulge in one’s whims and fancies. So, I went off to my friend’s place in Calcutta, a retired colleague, belonging to West Bengal cadre. A batchmate and a good friend, Mira Pande, welcomed me and looked after me, as if I were her own sister. That leaves you with a lovely homely feeling.

We both trouped into her car and then onto an AC coach to reach the bank of the river from where we were to get into the Launch to cruise down the river to reach Sundarbans. We travelled through Sonarpur, Mira’s place in South 24 Parganas, then on to Canning with Matla river flowing alongside.

I was tracing in my mind the historical events around the 24 Parganas. In 1757, when the British won the Battle of Plassey, in Bengal, it would pave way for their predominance in India among the European powers, then vying for a hold and supremacy in India.

On defeating Siraj-ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab of Bengal, in the battle of Plassey, the 24 ‘Jungle Mahals’ or Parganas (revenue divisions) along with Calcutta were gifted to Robert Clive, a clerk in East India Company, for his maverick part in winning victory to the Company.

We passed through a congested place called Canning, named after the last Governor General and the first Viceroy, Lord Canning (1856-1862), who ruled the roost. Railways came to Canning town in 1863 itself!

It’s main narrow road was so congested with people walking all over, sellers who spread their wares on the road itself, cycle rickshaws that crawled in between and the few motor vehicles that were inching their way out. Reminded me of the roads in London in the 19^th century, as one would have seen in My Fair Lady, the movie.

After what looked like a millennium, we travelled past Canning and through Basanti town reached Sonakjali after almost 4 hours. Here we had the unique experience of travelling, of course for a short distance, in a cycle rickshaw, like the ones in which goods are transported. This one transported humans as well!

From the jetty, we got into a motor boat and reached the Launch, by name Chitralekha, which was going to be our home for the next two days. The Launch launched us into Sundarbans, the thick mangrove forest, the largest in the world. The name Sundarbans means ‘beautiful forest; the name itself is said to have derived from a tree, called ‘Sundari,’ predominantly found in these forests.

The island-forests here have been formed as a delta or estuarine of the two major rivers, both arising from the Himalayas, Ganges and Brahmaputra, which join the sea at this place. The estuary that resulted is inundated with salt water, ebbing and flowing twice a day, due to the pull of the moon’s gravity, as high and low tides.  

The mangrove trees in these salty brackish waters have developed a unique way to survive by breathing air, through their special aerial or aerating roots that arise out of the water like spikes with holes called pneumatophores, through which they literally ‘breathe!’ The trees also have prop roots to anchor the tree in that clayey soil. Their leaves have special ability to excrete salt!

On the Indian side, Sundarbans occupy 4264 square kms and in Bangladesh, there is a spread of over 6087 sq.kms. There are 102 island on Indian side alone, 48 being forest islands.

As we moved in the waters, the beauty of Sundarbans spread before our eyes. Rivers, rivulets and creeks, and the mangrove trees, crisscrossing the area, as if we were in a huge maze formed by waters.

At the start, the rivers were full of waters, it being the high tide. By the evening, it was the low tide and the waters had receded exposing the wet clayey mud-flats and the supporting roots of the trees. We sailed through Gomdi river and got down the small motor boat to reach the bank Shudharnakhali in Pirkali jungle and climbed up the watch tower.

No luck, for the elusive Royal Bengal tiger was nowhere to be found. Only through the videos of the guide’s mobile phones could we see them, killing and carrying goats or a fisherman or two killed by the tigers on their prowl. Here tigers eat fish and crab, and swim very fast, climb trees, drink salty water and take its pray in broad daylight, special adaptations for the ecosystem in which they live. As of now there are only 130 or so tigers in this area. No chance of sighting them, unless one is extremely lucky and obviously, we were not!

Our second stop for the day was Sajnekhali, where there is a watch tower, crocodile pond, deer park and turtle pond with olive Ridley Sea Turtles. We did see an estuarine croc lazily lying at one edge of the pond, but no turtles. Monkeys were wandering around, so also red crabs putting forth their limb with claws. We saw a mother and baby spotted deer as well. A monitor lizard was lying hidden among plants and dry leaves.

Many birds were flying over our heads, white breasted kingfisher, pied kingfisher, plovers, egrets, grey shrike, bee-eater and Adjutant stork. Dusk was approaching and I took pictures of the setting sun turned into a red globe on flame and soon we returned.

Every time we had to climb down the Launch to get into the boat and on return to get out of the boat and climb up the Launch, our feeble knees wobbled and the staff had to literally haul us up and down. That was an experience!

We returned to our home, Chandraleka and settled down for a good dinner and a deep slumber rocked by the tiny waves, as it dropped anchor in the middle of Pirkhali river. Mira had booked the only cabin on the Launch with an attached bathroom for ourselves and the rest, some 30 odd tourists, had two tier compartments like those in the trains to themselves.

Early next morning we woke up to the chattering of birds and the Launch had already started to move. It was low tide once again and we saw the bare banks beneath the tree line. Still no tigers.

Morning exercise was to climb down and go to Dobanki and take a walk on the elevated ‘canopy’ path. Even the two wild boars, which used to frequent the place refused to show themselves to us, but wait, one of them came down briefly to drink water at the artificial sweet water pond constructed by the forest department and I clicked, though at a receding figure.

On the return journey, we sat on the front bow of the Launch and enjoyed surveying the far reaches of the rivers, especially the Panchamukhani river, where one can see five rivers branching off. A few fishing boats were lazily floating on the waters.

On to the jetty and then once more riding the cycle rickshaw, the AC coach through Canning town and to Sonarpur, where my friend’s driver was waiting. We were pleasantly tired and looked for a good night’s rest and onward journey the next day to visit Rabindranath Tagore’s Shantiniketan. 

 That and the Shanthiniketan bags are for the next blog. I have run out of space!