Sundarbans National Park protects the world’s most extensive mangrove forest––3900 square miles of mangroves!––located in the delta of the combined Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. About a third of the mangroves are in neighboring Bangladesh. Both governments are committed on paper to preserving this important coastal region, but current enforcement of the protections is ineffective.
“Mangrove” describes overall about 110 different species of shrubs and small trees, which grow in coastal waters, both saline and brackish, in the tropics and subtropics. Generally, different mangrove species have different tolerances of salinity, and are dispersed along a salinity gradient. As seawater rises with climate warming, the salt water advances farther inland along the rivers, favoring some mangrove species over others.
Mangroves are especially good at sequestering carbon dioxide––better than other forest types––and thus they help to buffer climate change. The very fine soil that accumulates around their roots acts as a sink for heavy metals, and so they clean the water and sequester contaminants as well. Oysters thrive on their roots. Mollusks, sponges, shrimp, crabs, and young fish all depend on the shelter that mangroves provide. People, too, depend on the mangroves, not only to support fisheries, but also to protect communities near the coast from the worst ravages of cyclones.
For our visit to Sundarbans with Naturalist Journeys, we were based in Sundarbans Jungle Camp, and explored the region by boat. Each morning began with hot tea, followed by an all-day boat trip in a two-deck boat, with bathroom, kitchen and a rest area below the main viewing deck. Breakfasts and lunches were served on board.
Both mornings began with early fog.
Each day we walked along one of the boardwalks suspended above the mangroves, and viewed critters from a tower. The Sundarbans area is famous for its people-eating Tigers, and visitors are well-protected by netting along the walkways. Entire villages are located within the national park, and those, too, are surrounded by high netting in an effort to thwart the Tigers.
At one tower, a pair of Brahminy Kites incited bedlam among the Lesser Whistling-Ducks: whenever the kites circled nearby, the ducks would dive, in a striking syncopated water dance.
Back on the river, a good-sized Saltwater Crocodile lounged in the sun.
Common Water Monitors also sunned on mangrove branches along the waterways.
On our second morning, we began by carefully searching the banks, and were rewarded when our guides found a beautiful Jungle Cat, resting on the bank with her playful kitten. The pair seemed completely unfazed by our presence. As the mother catnapped, the kitten explored nearby, returning to attack her twitching tail.
A note on the wild travel to Sundarbans from Kolkata (Calcutta): we rode in a convoy of several comfortable taxis. Our very good drivers had to weave Indian-style through all manner of transport, sacred cows, and livestock using the roads––a breath-taking experience for the uninitiated. Cows slowly meandered through heavy traffic, even sleeping in the middle of the road as cars whizzed past. We learned that the penalty for a driver who kills a sacred cow is the same as for killing a person: 7 years in prison. The penalty for striking a free-ranging goat or chicken is to pay the owner of that beast, not only the cost of the animal, but the cost of five generations of that animal!
One of our drivers had grown up in Mother Teresa’s orphanage, and had been her driver for 12 years, meeting many of the celebrities who sought out Mother Teresa, including Princess Diana.
Yes, Indian culture is quite different from Western culture. We were reminded anew of that fact when we arrived back at the Holiday Inn, Kolkata, in the midst of a wedding celebration. The men were dressed in pink turbans with long flowing tails, and everyone was dancing at the hotel entrance.
