Nearby Places of Kolkata-I

Sundari Trees

Royal Bengal Tiger

Sundarban: The Sundarban is the largest mangrove forest in the world. This forest is world heritage forest declared by the UNESCO and most of which portion is under the jurisdiction of the Bangladesh country and less part is in India. The Sundarban National Park is mainly Royal Bengal Tiger reserve Park. The entire forest is covered with dense mangrove trees.The name Sundarban is Bengali name and its English translation is beautiful forest. Sundar=beautiful and ban=forest.This sundar (beautiful) has come from the name of Sundari trees. This kind of trees is huge in numbers.

According to history, this area was traced to 200 and 300 AD. In earlier place was under control of pirates of different places. In 1860's, this forest was again tracked down the East India Company and in 1875 the large portion of mangrove forest declared reserve forest as per the Forest preservation Act 1865. In the year 1911, It was come to the notice that this forest has not been neither had been tracked nor had been census. The area liked 165 miles or 266 Km added with this forest as it was raised from water.

Sundarban is a water-logged jungle. Here other than Bengal Tiger, lots of wild beasts are flourished. This forest is lies in the channel of Bay of Bengal and confluence of three rivers like Padma , Brahmaputra and Meghna across of southern Bangladesh. This mangrove trees are the main protector of this forest. This forest is covered ten thousand square kilometers, out of which six thousand square kilometer is in Bangladesh. This salt-tolerant mangrove forest is connected to waterways of every corner and boat is only the vehicle.

Other than Royal Bengal Tiger, there are also various types of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and also various types of snake. Mangroves of Sundarban are not only protecting the forest area, but also protecting the nearest villages from cyclones.

There are many ways to reach to Sundarbans . From Diamondharbour to Kakdwip and Namkhana . Boats are available from Gangadharpur . Sonakhali Tourist Lodge is best places to stay. For more detail, www.helptourism.com; recently, permit is required for foreign nationals.

Only for enjoying the beauty of Sundarban without adventure, then West Bengal Government package tour of two-three nights. For enjoying adventure, then local bhutbhuti (Motorboat) can be hired and stay whole night in the canals of dense forest. This is only to watch Royal Bengal Tigers that came to the river banks to drink water. From Calcutta, Motor-Lunch can be taken from Calcutta directly and strait to Sundanban. Best time to visit Sundarban is November - March of every year.

Kingfisher Bird

Largetooth Swafish