Sundarban National Park & Tiger Reserve, Mangrove Forest

District: South 24 Parganas, W.B.

World Natural Heritage site and Global Biosphere Reserve declared by UNESCO

Location: The largest Gangetic Delta and Mangrove forest of the world situated in the southern most part of West Bengal, in the South-east. of Kolkata, in the district of south 24 Parganas of West Bengal, consisting of several small and large islands in the mouth of river Hooghly and Bay of Bengal.

How to go: Sundarban Tiger Reserve is not very far from Kolkata Metropolitan City. However the transport involves Train/Bus, Rickshaw, motor launch, country boat, etc. to reach the forest. The nearest rail station is at Canning 40 KM south of Kolkata. Regular train service (19 pairs in a day) starts from Sealdah South Station. Canning is called the gateway of Sundarban. The project Tiger office is also situated at Canning. The Motor Launch jetty is at a distance of 8 minutes walk. The motorised boat is available from the jetty otherwise one has to cross river Matla by shared boat to reach Dockghat on other side. Again get riskshaw or auto or bus to reach Sonakhali. From Sonakhali, get the motor boat to reach Gosaba in 1.5 hours. From Gosaba launch ghat, get rickshaw to reach Pakhiralaya (6KM) which is opposite to the Sajnekhali Forest Office and WBTDC Lodge. The tourists are to cross the river by boat to reach the lodge. Beyond this point no one can travel by road. This apart, the buses go to Basanti/Sonakhali from Esplanade in Kolkata. Total time of such journey is about 5 hours from Sealdah Station / Esplanade.

General: It is the land of Royal Bengal Tigers, Crocodiles and Snakes in the estuaries of river Hooghly, Matla, Gosaba, Bidyadhari and Thakuran. A huge network of small tributaries, nullahs, tidal rivers and creeks encompassed the forest land from the three sides. The main forest cover in the Sundarbans comprises of estuarine mangrove forest inter mixed by swamps and littoral forest. There is salt water mixed forest, brackish water mixed forest and alluvial grass lands. The name Sundarban derived from the name of sundari tree, one of the main species of the woods of Sundarban. This forest land covers an area of about 4262 sq km. in the Indian part and the other part lies in Bangladesh. It has acquired the honour of World Natural Heritage site by UNESCO in the year 1997 for it's dense and huge forest reserve. In 1989 it was also declared as Biosphere Reserve by the Govt. of India. The Tiger conservation project was started in 1974 with an area of 2585 sq km. The core area of Sundarban covers 1330 sq km.and the home of the largest number of wild tigers in the world (249 tigers within tiger reserve forest and 25 tigers in the south 24 Parganas forest division according to census 2004). This vast mangrove swamp comprises commonly of the species like Genwa, Goran, Gorjan, Sudari and Hetal.

Apart from Tigers, Sundarban also contains very rich and rare variety fauna such as Spotted Dear, Fishing Cats, Rhesus Macaque, Wild Boar, Crocodiles, Monitors, Olive Ridly Sea Turtles, Shark, common Otter, Dolphin, etc. Among the 55 reptile species - King Cobra, the common Cobra, Branded Krait, Russells Vipers are among the most venomous reptiles while the other non-venomous group - Python, Green whip snake, Dhaman , checkered Kil-Back are the common species. There are also large numbers of Bird species(248 species including the Migrant birds in the winter) available in this Biosphere Reserve.

Safety: Safe; Roads: Motorable road. The principal transport in the forest is boat. Road traffic: Not much traffic. Medical support: No; Fuel Pumps: No;Car repairing: No; Market & Shopping Center: No; Tourist Information Center: No; Railway & Air Ticket: No; Hotels & Restaurants: A few; Sports & Game Centers: No; Cellular service: Partially available Car rental: No. Boat: Plenty available.

Last Updated on Monday, 10 January 2011 22:28