From Travel Diary: Sundarbans

As the year approached towards its end, bags got packed for various destinations. Mine was Sundarbans meaning beautiful forests, indeed one of the most beautiful mangrove forests in the world with most number of species in both flora & fauna.

My prime interest was the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger. From the day I booked the tickets I started surfing photos of tigers. I consider watching a wild cat in its own home ground as quite an achievement. As the marine vessel started the jungle-river safari the upper deck became our home for the next two days. The greedy eyes craving for the Royal's view.

Long wait but where is the tiger? As patience started to erode and heart breaking with noise as good as tiger roars, there were the exotic wild life for us comforting us.  Have you ever seen an Eagle Hawk that changes color?  And a group of wild boars watching you from a great distant and wondering what are these people doing in our territory?............And then there were the Chital deer playing merrily around the sweet water ponds while being cautious of their hunters. And to entertain us all through were our old friends, the monkeys.

 And there were the crocodiles. It is said in the Hindu mythology Makara (mugger crocodile) is the Vahana (vehicle) of river goddess Ganga. What better place could there be to view the real-life version of the mythological creature - a terrain where its goddess merges with the ocean - the Makara rests on the marshy swamps under the sun after its Himalayan journey with its mistress. It laid there as if made of stone. But visitors wanted to see whether it is real and started stoning the creature. Alas! I remembered one of Tagore's short stories where the protagonist had die to to prove she was alive. Thankfully some wise people were around and stopped the curious visitors from carrying on their research.

Am I sounding like a wild life lover.........?I am not really. 

It is proved from the fact that the first thing on my mind was crab curry immediately after seeing the small red crabs. I was wondering they are so small in size how much is there to eat. The yummy creature populated quite a huge portion of the Dobanki tiger reserve ground along with some other species in which although we were disinterested but nature is quite interested. 

While I was yet to digest my day dream feast with the crabs someone shouted saying "Look at the big crab"! As I turned around and looked at the ground, there was no crab at all forget a big sized one. I desperately started searching for the biggie but there were only trees. And then I noticed the text on a wooden plate put on a tree, it read "Kakra", yes Bengalis call crab by the name Kakra. Jovially I thought about the appetite of Bengalis, we are known for our taste for non-veg food and to appease our diet we even name the trees after the animal kingdom.

Not just non-veg I love veg too, not on my plate although but on the trees.The tree with the signature mark of this part of the world 'Sundari' was the most enchanting view among the flora. This is the only tree in the forest which does not follow the especial mangrove germination process i.e. the seed is germinated while still attached to the tree and the sprout comes out and falls on the ground. This process prevents the plants from being washed away by tidal water. The golden and green leaves of Sundari indeed explains why it has been named so.

But that is only two of them, the total flora species count is 64, with the remarkable feature of stilt roots which support the trees to the ground and pneumatophores or special breathing roots seen all over the marshes.

All said and done where is the Royal Bengal Tiger, there was none to see except for the pug mark which I do not really know was of a tiger's or some other animal's. It felt good to think of it as that of a tiger's. So be it. Anyhow I had every plan to tell my friends that I have seen a tiger from a great distant so small that it almost resembled a monkey walking on the river banks. But wisdom dawned on me before I could tell the face-saver lie. However, a tiger did visit the nearby villages where we were sailing as we heard the villagers and Forest department people bursting firecrackers to keep away the tigers. Something is better than nothing. At least I have a story to tell. And with this ends my journey log to the beautiful forests with a promise to revisit again and next time not a river safari but on foot.  Don't tell my mother please.