Declared
a National Park in 1984, Sundarbans national park is an enchanting park
situated in the Ganga delta in West Bengal. The area spans over the Hooghly
region in the west and Teulia river in the east, the park covers a vast
stretch of mangrove swamp, lush forested islands and small rivers near the
Bay of Bengal.
Spanning over an area of 2608 sq km, Sundarbans national park was
established in 1978. Sixty percent of the demarcated area of the Sunderbans
sprawling actually over 9630sq.km, is in Bangladesh. Sundarbans national
park covers an area of 1330 sq.km and is a part of the World Heritage Site.
SUndarbans national park also comes under the Project Tiger Scheme.
Interestingly,the Sunderbans encompasses three wildlife sanctuaries at
Sajnekhali, Lothian Island and Haliday Island.
Location of Sundarbans National Park :
Straddling the rivers Hooghly in the west and Teulia in the east the park
has many small rivers, forested islands besides the vast stretch of mangrove
swamps. Dum Dum is the nearest airport at Calcutta. The nearest railhead is
at Canning, 48 km away. The nearest town is Gosaba, 50 km away.
Sunderbans
is accessible only by riverine waterways. From Calcutta there are suburban
trains to Canning and buses to Namkhana, Raidighi, Sonakhali and Najat from
where motor launch services are available for Sunderbans. There are road
transport available from Calcutta for places like Namkhana (105 km),
Sonakhali (100 km), Raidighi (76 km), Canning (64 km), and Najat (92 km),
which are all near the Sunderbans and have access to the riverine waterways
leading to it.
Sunderbans National Park as a Tiger Reserve :
Sunderbans houses the endearing Royal Bengal Tiger and is famous for
harboring the largest number of tigers. The other animal species included in
the Sunderban ecosystem are fishing cat, water monitor, wild boar, different
species of deer, rhesus monkeys, large numbers of crocodiles and Gangetic
dolphin and a variety of other fish, olive Ridley sea turtles etc. Project
tiger has also launched a programme to protect the Olive ridley sea turtles.
The Sajnekhali Bird Sanctuary is an enchanting tourist spots within
Sunderban that houses a variety of birds like Brown winged kingfisher, Grey
headed lapwing, Golden backed woodpecker, White swans, Swamp patridge,
Pallas fish eagle etc. There is a crocodile pool and a mangrove.
Other interesting places in the Sunderbans are Bhagatpur Crocodile Project
which is a crocodile breeding farm ( access from Namkhana), Sagar Island,
Jambudweep, Sudhanyakali watchtower, Buriidabri Tiger Project, Netidhopani
Watchtower, Haliday Island.
Entry into the Park :
It is mandatory for the foreign tourists to take the permit in order to
explore the park and this permit can be obtained from Writer`s Building,
which houses the West Bengal Secretariat in Calcutta. The address is The
Joint Secretary (Forest), Govt. of West Bengal, 4th Floor, G-Block, Writers'
Building, Calcutta- 700 001, Tel 225-5601 Extn 411/754.There is a nominal
entry fee to the park payable at Sajnekhali.
