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Area :
Sunderbans National Park, India,
169,950 hectares (core) and
88,527 hectares (buffer).
Established
: 1973 as a tiger reserve, 1978 as a national
park.
Description
:
 Some
believe that the name Sunderbans is derived from 'Sundri'
- a plant found in the local mangroves - and 'bans' meaning forest.
Others believe the name means 'beautiful forest' ('sunder' = beautiful,
and 'bans' = forest). The Sunderbans, extending over an
area of 1,000,000 hectares, is the world's largest delta, formed by the
Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghana rivers. The region has extensive
mangrove forests and the contours are in a constant state of flux,
caused by the monsoon flooding each year. Roughly a third of the delta
is water, consisting of rivers, channels and tidal creeks up to 5
kilometers wide. The Sunderbans falls both within the
India and Bangladesh, the latter having the larger share of the delta.
On the Indian side there is a national park overlooking the Bay of
Bengal.
 The
Sunderbans West, South and East wildlife sanctuaries in
Bangladesh are also at the southern extremities of the delta. The Sunderbans
parks are covered in mangrove forests of which there are 3 main zones,
depending on the level of salt in the soil and water a freshwater zone,
a moderately saline zone, and a saline zone. Fishing, timber extraction
and honey collection are the main human activities allowed within the Sunderbans.
The four Sunderbans national parks have been lumped together as they all
share common features of the estuarine mangrove ecosystem. The main
attractions of the Sunderbans are the Tiger, of which
the delta harbor large reptiles like the Monitor Lizard, Estuarine
Crocodile and the Olive Ridley Turtle, for which there is a conservation
programme in the Indian park. The Leopard, Indian Rhinoceros, Javan
Rhinoceros, Swamp Deer, Hog Deer and Water Buffalo have all become
locally extinct from the delta in recent decades.
Season
:
The best time to visit Sunderbans is during winters
between September and March.
Access
:
The Sunderbans are not easily accessible. To get to the
Sunderbans national park in India the nearest airport
is Calcutta, the nearest railway station is Canning, and the nearest
town is Gosaba. From the park headquarters at Canning take the country
motor launch (5 hours) to Sajnekhali.
There are regular bus services
from Kolkata (Calcutta) to this place. But the main areas of the
sanctuary can only be accessed by riverine waterways. The best and the
safest way to visit Sunderbans is on conducted tours. One can also avail
the services of the private vessels from Canning, Gosaba or Basanti.
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