Sundarbans, the largest Mangrove Forest in the world is situated in the vast delta formed by the confluence of the great rivers the Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna in the Bay of Bengal. The name Sundarban is derived from the abundance presence of Sundari trees in this area. Shared between the two countries India and Bangladesh, the Sundarban National Park has been declared as UNESCO World Heritage Site. This Biosphere Reserves is also home to different endangered Flora and Fauna and the kingdom of the Bengal tigers which is popularly known as Royal Bengal Tiger. They can swim easily in salt water.
The Sundarban National Park is accessible only by boats unlike other National Parks of India, making Sundarban trip one of the most attractive one on earth and an undiscovered paradise for wild life enthusiast, birders, bird watchers and nature lovers.
Several tour packages of different tour operators are available to explore this Mangrove Forest by boat. After doing some online research, I chose the Package conducted by West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation. It's a 2 N 3D package from Kolkata to Kolkata.
WBTDC conducted Sundarban tour in two large cruisers - M.V.Chitrarekha and M.V. Sarbajaya. The M.V. Chitrarekha is larger than the latter. It has a coupe of five pax and cabins. Apart from that both the cruisers have AC and Non – AC berths in the Middle Deck with a large four side open Upper Deck having sitting arrangement and a Lower Deck with dormitory. Berths are like AC 2- tier of Indian Railways but more spacious than that. Cabins can be locked from inside. There're large doors on the berth area that can be closed as well. Outside views can be seen from the cabins/berths through large windows. Both the cruisers have kitchen facility and attached decent western bathroom with shower & wash basin. I booked this trip with M.V. Sarbajaya.
Sundarban Trip Begins
Tour starts from WBTDC office at 3/2 B.B.D Bag East. After confirmation of booking slip, seats are allotted in the AC bus .
Bus departed sharp on 8.30 for Sonakhali. Soon after, breakfast and 1 ltr. mineral water bottle were provided in the bus. After leaving the city, the bus went through the narrow road flanked by fisheries land on either side. Bus reached Sonakhali by 11.30 am and dropped us a few walks away from the Jetty.
You have to walk 10 minutes or you can hire a Van Rickshaw ( on your own payment ) to reach the Jetty. From Sonakhali you will be transferred to the large cruiser Chitrarekha or Sarbajaya, anchored in the middle of the river, by small motorized boat. My accommodation was at lower berth in the middle deck of M.V.Sarbajaya.
As soon as all the tourists were shifted, the vessel started sailing through the river Hogol and our journey by boat began.
During the sail, you will be visited five most important and breathtakingly beautiful Watch Towers of this Mangrove Forest namely Sudhanyakhali, Sajnekhali, Burirdabri, Jhingakhali and Dobanki.
After leaving luggage in the cabin, I went up to the upper deck to have a great views.
River is wide here. You can see the small villages and village people along the bank of the river. You will be crossed one or two more jetties on the way too. Occasional sight of other boats is also very common during your Sundarban trip. As soon as you started enjoying the journey, you would be greeted with mouth watering lunch comprising of Rice, Dal, Beguni, Fish, Chatni, Papad, Rosgulla and 1 liter. drinking water at the upper deck. After lunch you may continue to enjoy the cruise sitting on the upper deck or relax at the middle deck.
Within one and half our journey, you would be started getting the sight of mangrove trees and their beautiful aerial roots along the left bank of the river.
Sudhanyakhali :
In a while, the vessel will reach Sudhanyakhali. A flight of cemented stairs welcome you and followed by a narrow paved road with barbed wire fence on both sides, take you to the Watch Tower. Sudhanykhali watch tower offers an aerial view of campsite as well as panoramic view of Sundarban.
It is said that most of the Tigers are sighted from this tower although we could able to get a sight of a pair of spotted deer only. The endless greenery of the surroundings will mesmerize you.
There's a freshwater pond near the tower where animals come to drink water. On the way to watch tower, you get to see Kankra, Garjan and other Mangrove trees and their stilt roots.
Sundarbans is a plastic free zone. You will get to see a banner on this here and a poster named "colours of Sundarban" about the different wild life found at this campsite. Swamp area is covered with pneumatophores or breathing roots and dotted with red crabs. You may find some trees full of fruits also.
After Sudhanyakhali, next campsite is Sajnekhali. The river becomes narrow here.You can view the lots of mangrove trees on either side of the river and numerous creeks that goes deeper parts of the Jungle and swampy lands.
The entrance of the creeks are fenced with barbed wire so that fishing boats can't go deeper in the jungle.
Sajnekhali :
A stairway form the water level take you to the inside the Sundarban Tiger Reserve, Sajnekhali Camp. Sajnekhali has two watch towers. The first WT offers a aerial view of the entire campsite of Sajnekhali whereas the second WT
offers the view of the deeper part of the jungle. It's situated just besides the Tourist lodge.
There's a Mangrove Interpretation Centre, a Bono bibi and Bagh debta ( the Forest Goddess & Tiger God ) temple and a Crocodile Park here.You can stay here at Sajnekhali Tourist Lodge .
We spotted a monitor lizard and a few beautiful birds, monkeys and a mongoose there. There 's a huge crocodile lying at the crocodile park.
Bagh Debta & Bono Bibi :
Tiger Debta is known as Dakshin Rai in Sundarbans. Along with Bagh Debta, Bono Bibi ( The lady of the Forest ) is universally worshiped here by Honey collectors, Wood cutters and Fisher men before entering the forest against the attack from the tigers.
It's believed that the demon king, Dakshin Rai, an arch-enemy of Banbibi, actually appears in the disguise of a tiger and attacks human beings. Bono bibi is the ultimate saviour of the forest and worshiped universally by Hindu and Muslims.
While coming back, we witnessed a beautiful sunset in Sundarban.
The vessel is anchored in the middle of the river for night halt. In the evening, you will be provided with fish fry, pokora and tea. After having snacks, you may go to relax in your berth or sit on the upper deck. In winter, the evenings are generally cool.
The upper deck was illuminated with bulbs. Dense darkness all around. Nothing was visible. You could only feel the calmness and tranquility of the forest. After an early sumptuous dinner I went down to my berth for sleeping.
Next morning, you will be cruising through the deep creeks towards Burirdabri beat. Waterways towards Burirdabri beat is spectacular. Surroundings greenery of the mangrove trees and their aerial roots awestruck you.
Burirdabri :
It takes almost five hours to reach Burirdabri Beat from Sajnekhali.
The first sight of the campsite is very impressive. It is notably picturesque.
It has a remote watchtower. The layout of this watchtower is very graceful where you walk over mangrove cage trail and then through the mud cage and wooden bridge finally culminating to a wooden watch tower over looking Bangladesh. This watch Tower is located on Raymangal river adjoining Bangladesh. The view point is known as Raimongal View Point. Buridhabri watch tower is a must see place.
The river Raimongal is forming the International Boundary between India and Bangladesh.One can see the Bangladesh Sundarbans from this watchtower. This watchtower has a capacity to host 10 persons at a time.
This camp site is also rich in ground fauna consisting of snails, varieties of Mangrove crabs ( Red crab, yellow crab, large crab ) and mollusc. You can spot Mudskippers at the swamp area as well.
This camp site also offers a short canopy walk where you can find a variety of the Mangrove trees like Golpata, Khalsi, Bain, Keora, Geoya, Garan, Hetal on both sides of the walkway.
If you are lucky, you can find the Tiger's pug mark in swamp areas of this camp site.
From Buridhabri, you will be heading towards Jhingakhali watch tower. View of this part of water ways is extremely beautiful.
Vivid green Mangrove trees on the backdrop of clear blue sky was so charming. The air is less polluted here.
On the way, you may witness Cargo ships. River is not very wide here. You can see lots of mangroves on either sides of the river clearly. The sight of local fishing boats here and there add a charm to the landscape.
Jhingakhali :
This jetty is quite different than other two previous jetties as seen in the pic.
Jhingakhali Beat is located on the Eastern most fringe of the Indian Sundarbans. It falls in the Basirhat range of Sundarban. Movement of tourists are less in this area.
This watchtower, like some other watchtowers, has observation lines and sweet water pond for observing the wildlife.
This watch tower offers an exciting view of the jungle. The panoramic view of the untamed forestscape from the watch towers leaves you spell bound.
There is a Banobibi temple within the compound as well.
Apart from other birds that can be sighted, it is said that the sighting of Brahmini Kites is very much likely from this watchtower although we could not seen any.
The vessel is anchored in the middle of the river for night halt near Sajnekhali just like previous day. In the evening, you will be treated with snacks and hot tea. You can sit leisurely on the upper deck or relax in your Berth. I was sitting on the deck along with the others. Our guide provided us dozens of interesting and thrilling stories of tiger attacks, crocodile attacks and also about the life of the local people of the Sundarbans.
Next day the vessel started sailing early in the morning. When I went up to the upper deck, other tourists were already there with a binocular and zoom lenses. On that day, you will be heading towards Dobanki campsite. Various kind of beautiful birds are seen in this stretch of waterways.
Two to three kind of kingfishers, green bee eaters, egrets and many more. Our guide was helping to spot the birds. Gradually the sun rose. The sight was spectacular. On that day vessel will be sailing through a narrow creeks with dense mangrove forests on both sides. Few hours of sailing, you will be in a wide river with swampy land on either side.
May be it was low tide time. Soon after breakfast, suddenly our guide showed us a crocodile floating in the distance and a turtle along with the crocodile. Everyone was busy to get a glimpse of it with binocular and photographers were busy to capture it.
You can spot numerous snowy egrets busy to catch their breakfast at the edge of the river. Morning cruise on that part of the river is
very enjoyable and full of excitement on account of spotting of wild lives and beautiful birds around. Everyone eagerly looking here and there to spot the birds or wildlife. Suddenly one of us pointing out a spot where a small herd of deer were grazing in the swamp area around the trees. Few of them was laying under tree shade.
Soon after you will be sailing through the river with Hetal bush along the shoreline. It was looking amazing. We reached Dobanki Campsite around 10 am.
Dobanki :
This watchtower offers an unique experience of watching wildlife. It is renowned for having a 20 foot high 150 m long enclosed canopy walk.
We started canopy walk keeping an eye on both sides of forestscape. But our bad luck. We did not spot any wild life during our Sundarban trip.
But soothing greenery around was eye catching.
There was another jetty at the other end of the canopy walk. But we were warned not to get down this jetty as river crocodile are found here.
While transferring to the large vessel from Dobanki camp, we saw again a herd of deer across the river. They were grazing in the forests.
Soon after departing Dobanki, you will be started sailing through the Matla river. The spread of the river was very wide. Guide told us the land seen far away across the river is Bangladesh. The cruising through the vast river was really thrilling.
On the way to return journey to Sonakhali, you come across the Jharkhali Watch Tower along the bank of the river. You will reach Sonakhali by 1.30 pm. From Sonakhali, the AC bus take you to the Esplanade.
In all cases, you will be transferred by small boat to the respective jetties to visit the watch towers. Except Burirdabri, in all other campsites, you will get to see the Bagh debta and Bonobibi temple just like Sajnekhali campsite.
The entire Sundarban trip with WBTDC was a fantastic experience. Food was fresh and delicious . Accommodation was comfortable. Cruising experience through the pristine, tranquil nature was fabulous.
Itinerary :
Day 1 :
8.00 am : Assemble at Tourism Centre at 3/2 B.B.D. Bag, Kolkata
8.30 am : Depart Kolkata by AC Bus.
11.30 am : Reach Sonakhali Jetty and transfer to Vessel.
12.00 noon : Depart to visit Sudhanyakhali and Sajnekhali Watch Tower. Night halt on board.
Day 2 :
8.00 am : Cruise through Buridhabri jungle and visit Jhingakhali WT. Night Halt on board.
Day 3 :
5.30 am : Depart for Dobanki.
9.00 am : Arrival Dobanki and visit WT.
10.00 am : Depart Dobanki
1.30 pm : Arrive Sonakhali jetty
2.00 : Depart Sonakhali by Bus
5.30 pm : Arrive Esplanade, Kolkata.
Sundarbans Permits and Fees :
Foreigners need a permit to enter the national park and must provide their passport as identification. The permit can be obtained from the Forest Department at Sajnekhali or the West Bengal Tourism office, 2/3 BBD Bagh East in Kolkata. If you travel with a tour company, they will make the arrangements for you.
How to reach Sundarban :
Sundarban can be reached in various ways :
By Air : Nearest airport is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Airport, Kolkata. The distance from Airport to the starting point of Sundarban safari i.e. Godkhali - 120 km or Sonakhali - 90 Km. From airport, Taxi or cab takes around 3 hours to reach any one of those point.
By Train : Nearest major rail-head is Sealdah station.Nearest local railway station is Canning. Suburban trains plies on regular basis from Sealdah to Canning ( Canning Local) or you can take a cab or taxi from Sealdah to reach Godkhali or Sonkhali.
By Road : You can take public transport from Kolkata to Canning and then Canning to Godkhali or hire a cab to reach Godkhali or Sonakhlai directly.
From Godkhali or Sonakhali you have to book boats to access the Sundarban as this National Park is only accessible through waterways.
Best time to visit Sundarban:
November to March or April. Be sure to take the warm clothes in December & January.
Where to stay :
You can stay at Sajnekhali Tourist Lodge or hotels in Pakhiralaya or other small villages and visit Sundarbans on a day long Sundarban trip. If you book with the WBTDC, then you will stay on boat during the entire trip.
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