Sunderbans - the fascinating home to the Royal Bengal Tigers

Pronounced as Shundor-bon – in bangla Shundor means beautiful and Bon means Jungle or Forest – so it means Beautiful Jungle, the mangroves of Sunderbans delta is true to its name. Always intrigued by the mystery of the jungles of Sunderbans which is home to the ferocious Royal Bengal Tigers, I had always wanted to visit the place. The tigers here are said to be man-eaters by birth – reasons vary with different theories. So I was really excited when we (me and my husband) decided to plan for this destination.
We were not sure of how the place would be, but we were more than cent-percent sure that this is going to be one exciting and memorable trip and we weren’t disappointed. Another excitement added was the modes of travel – we were travelling by Air (flight from Delhi to Kolkata), by road from airport to Gosaba and then a boat to the Sajnekhali - the island where we had booked our stay. The return was the same way and then a train to New Jalpaiguri for another destination – so practically covering every possible mode.
Though we had started our day very early, around 3 a.m. for the early morning flight, but I wasn’t sleepy during the 3 hrs bumpy taxi ride through the narrow village roads to Gosaba for the sheer thought of going to a place, that we being jungle lovers, have been dreaming of. Finally we started with the boat ride to reach the destination. The mechanized boats, as they are called, are motor operated boats that run on diesel. These are also mode of transport for the people living in the villages strewn around the islands – a very crude Venice experience I must say. We were enjoying the ride as we were the only ones and the excitement of being in such a surreal place was hitting us truly. However, after a while the smell of the diesel started hitting us rather badly!!!
I got talking to the men running the boat seeking on how and what arrangements for travelling around and gained much information required. The first thought when we saw the steps going up the gate of the island where we were to stay, was WOW – this is another world in itself. We forgot that we had not eaten anything since morning and asked the boatman to wait for us while we unload our luggage to take us for a small tour around the islands. To top our excitement while going towards the lodge, we found a huge monitor lizard sun basking near a small water body. We happily clicked and it happily posed. The stay – Sajnekhali Forest Lodge provided basic wooden rooms as in forests with a small canteen. I played my role of speaking to the people in Bengali, had a quick grab of fish-rice and then got ready for our boat ride. We were hopeful of getting some shots of the birds and the sunset, and if lucky then the tiger too! This was one amazing ride that we had with beautiful kingfishers sitting on the hanging branches of the mangroves, the sun setting against the water was just brilliant but the narrow creeks were little scary. There were net barrier across all these small marshy islands around 8-9 ft high – primarily to keep the tigers restricted of jumping off and swimming across to the nearest inhabited islands.
Next day, the whole day was planned for cruising along the river. We booked a boat, hired a guide (mandatory) and the two young men to sail. First thing you need to do is go to the next island, buy raw material for food including vegetables, salt, oil, rice and dal and kerosene oil – hand over the stuff to the boatman. And you are all set to go. We decided to sail through the narrow creeks where the chances of spotting birds and tigers are high. All excited we perched on to the red plastic chairs, keeping a close vigil on the islands passing by to spot every moving thing. My idea of going to a tiger reserve is not only to see the tigers but to soak in the environment and see the other flora and fauna of the area, so I am never disappointed – if I get to see a tiger that’s a bonus anyways. So we started clicking around, the families crossing the river on boats, people selling objects and transporting material across the river, and the beautiful kingfishers, egrets, Eurasian curlews, sandpipers etc. sitting on the trees and on the marshy shores. The deltas are not just home to tigers but the crocodiles as well – and as again they say, the crocs here too are man-eaters. Theories suggest the salty water is one of the reasons (human blood is salty too) or because of their co-existence with humans on the same land so they take humans as any other prey. We saw a few of crocs basking in the sun and they were huge, clean and smart  of all the crocs we have seen. The moment you try to go a little closer to the shore for getting a better shot, they would slip away into the water and disappear in seconds. They looked ferocious but shy. After a while, I thought of trying my hands in sailing the boat as it seemed easy and the boy was too happy to hand it over – it just had a driving wheel to navigate – rest I could not find any breaks  and the motor was somewhere behind the boat – all I need to care for was that I sail it slowly and in the middle of the river, avoid leaves that get stuck in the motor wheels and that’s about it – I was happy, the boy was happy to take a break! So I was the sailor for next hour. The phones were not working, the breeze was cool and the ride was smooth and No traffic at all!!! And then we landed on an island with a watchtower – it was nice to click to some of the crabs – there’s a variety of crabs including red fiddler, hermit crab and mudskippers. They look tiny and cute. Back to river, we had our lunch – it was simple feast of rice, daal and vegetable, all cooked on the boat on a kerosene stove by the boatman. While returning we sailed through the narrow creeks and that was scary especially against the setting sun backdrop. We saw pumarks indicating the tiger was nearby – the excitement rose high but we were little scared at the back of our mind because of the documentaries that suggest that they could swim and attack the boats. We couldn’t spot any tiger but saw beautiful birds and animals like kingfishers, eurasian curlew, crocodiles, deers etc. By the end of the day we were tired but astonished by the ecosystem that survives here – harmony between nature and human where co-existence is the key to survival. We returned to the mainland following the same trail and amazed that the island and steps that we could see while coming were all under water now for the high tide. A journey here is a lifetime experience and to be cherished forever. I must go there again for sure and this time I dread to walk in the jungle, if that’s allowed!!!