Sunderbans Wildlife Sanctuary

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 kilometres 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 harbour 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.

Accommodation & facilities :
Accommodation in the sanctuary is available, in the comfortable tourist lodges. Sajnekhali has a 60 bed tourist lodge. Overnight facilities are also available at Bakkhali and Piyali. In the Sunderbans there is a basic Tourist Lodge at Sajnekhali run by Bengal Tourism. Transport within all the parks is by motor launch and boats as the entire mangroves are subject to daily inundation by the high tides from the sea.

Mammals :