Sunderban Trip (Dec 29, 2007)
Back here in Calcutta it was sad to hear what transpired in the San Francisco zoo. It was the same tiger that had grabbed the arms of the zoo employee a few months back. We had seen both the tiger and the employee on a prior visit.

The Royal Bengal Tiger is actually the Siberian Tiger that migrated from the North (Russia-China area) down Mongolia, and the Himalayas to settle down in the Sunderban estuary right where the mouth of the river meets the ocean (Bay of Bengal). Ages ago there were jungles to provide the tiger its territory and food, now it is all full of habitation and shrinking Mangrove forests.

After my visit to the Sunderbans I felt sad for the tiger as humans were slowly winning the war and they (tiger) were being pushed to the limits. As a last act of desperation they were battling man by stealing cattle and eventually being trapped and killed. The Indian forest service has designated large areas as "core" areas where no tourists are allowed, to provide the tiger some privacy.

We went to the Sunderbans as we wanted to scope out this area as a possible tourist destination for some of you (future visits). We were not happy with what we saw. The hospitality industry was not at all developed over there. The Sunderban area is like 100s of islands full of Mangrove trees that are constantly being reshaped by the sea water that moves upstream/downstream depending on the flow of the tide.

As one gets closer to the core areas there are no power lines or roads, instead they use generators & solar energy, and the water ways to move around. The boats are wood structures that are run by makeshift diesel engines. There are no speed boats here & one has to spend hours on the boat to get to the tiger watch towers.

Water is very scarce as the river is heavily harvested upstream so there is no sweet water downstream. To solve the water problem people have created artificial ponds. These catch rain water and then the water is purified for all work except drinking. Potable water comes to the islands in bottles by boat.

There is heavy fishing in the sea near the mouth of the river, thus making food for the various birds almost non-existent. So many species of birds no longer visit the Sunderbans. Many animals are now extinct like the Indian rhino, and the ones that remain are facing extinction. So the Sunderbans is a very quiet place and one can just see a scarce few deer, monkey, wild boar, some rare birds, dolphins in the deep rivers and if one gets very lucky the ever elusive tiger.