Sundarban---Paradise of West Bengal

I made a two day one night trip to Sundarban. Sundarban forest is the only mangrove tiger land of India. It is situated in the extreme south of West Bengal in the vicinity of Bay of Bengal. I departed from my home in Kolkata, India on 28th October. It was a good day with clear sky. I took the metro at 7 a.m. in the morning from Belgachia and reached Central station. I walked for 10 minutes and reached West Bengal Tourism Development Corporation office. I took tea and waited till the bus arrived.

I boarded the red bus. The bus is quite comfortable with well designed ergonomic seats. The bus departed from the stand at 8:40 a.m. We were given breakfast in the bus. Bread, cake, apple, boiled egg comprised our breakfast. We were given tea at a place called Ghatakpur where the bus halted for 10 minutes. We took water and relaxed and stretched ourselves. Then our journey started again till we reached Sonarkhali. As it was shallow water, a boat took us to our luxurious and big launch named M.V. CHITRAREKHA. It was a beautiful launch with all the facilities one needs to stay day and night. We were provided with VCD shows and we were given comfortable rooms to live. The name of one of our captain is Salim.

Our tour guide was Mr. Zaheer Rehaan, an English postgraduate who is working in this field for 1 year. He showed us the sites of the forest and told us a lot of things about Sudhanyakhali, Sajnekhali, and Dobanki. We went to Sonarkhali by foot. It was a 10 minute distance. Vans are also there taking a nominal Rs. 5 from visitors. In Sonarkhali, we reached the banks and took a boat which is propelled by steam engine. The boats are quite old and dilapidated. A large number of people are standing above and below the boat making the boat tilt from side to side. I had fear whether the boat might capsize but fortunately it did not!!

Tourists came from different parts of the country and the world. In India, tourists came from Mumbai, Delhi, Pune. Around the world, people came from Australia, Sweden, and France. People are communicating when you are going to talk to them but there is no such warmth in their behavior.