Facts about Sundarbans National Park
Sundarbans National Park is located in West Bengal, India. It has a core land coverage area of 169,950 hectares and buffer land coverage area of 88,527 hectares. It was established as a tiger reserve in the year 1973 and as a national park in 1978.
A lot of people residing here believe that “Sundarbans” is named after a plant found in local mangrove area called “Sundri” and the word “bans” means forest. Meanwhile, others believe that the name Sundarbans literally means “beautiful forest” wherein sunder means beautiful and bans means forest. The land area extends to more than 1,000,000 hectares. It is considered as the largest delta in the world. In addition, this park is formed by 3 rivers namely the Meghanna River, Ganges River and the Brahmaputra River.
The area has extensive abundance of mangrove forests wherein the contours are in constant flux state which is caused by yearly monsoon flooding. Approximately one-third of the waters in the delta, which consists of channels, tidal creeks and channels, reach around 5 kilometers wide. Moreover, Sundarbans National Park falls within the jurisdiction of 2 neighboring countries namely Bangladesh and India. The country of Bangladesh has a much larger share of the delta than India. In the Indian boundary, a national park can be found that overlooks the magnificent Bay of Bengal.
The wildlife sanctuaries in the eastern, western and southern part of Sundarbans in Bangladesh are located along the delta’s southern extremities. The parks along Sundarbans that are covered in various mangrove forests have 3 zones. The zones are classified depending on the salt level of the soil and water in the area. The 3 zones are freshwater zone, saline zone and moderately saline zone.
Timber extraction and honey collection as well as fishing are the major human activities that are allowed within the Sundarbans region. Sundarbans has 4 national parks that were merged together for they all have common estuarine mangrove ecosystem characteristics.
Major attractions in this national park are large reptiles found in the delta harbor such as monitor lizards, Olive Ridley turtles, estuarine crocodiles and Tigers, The authorities of this national park and the Indian park has a conservation program for Olive Ridley turtles. During the recent decades, leopards, Javan Rhinoceros, Indian Rhinoceros, hog deer, swamp deer and water buffalos had become extinct locally form the delta.
Best Time to Visit Sundarbans National Park
The most ideal season to visit is during winter. Winter months start in September and end in the month of March the following year. The minimum temperature of this site during the winter season is 10 degrees Celsius while the maximum temperature during the summer season is 34 degrees Celsius.
Getting to Sundarbans National Park
Access to Sundarbans National Park is hard to come by. The nearest airport to get to this national park is in Calcutta. The nearest town is “Gasaba.” You can reach this park by taking the Country Motor Launce to Sajnekhali from the Canning Park Headquarters. The drive is approximately 5 hours. There are also regular busses that travel from Calcutta to the park. The main sites of this park can only be reached by riverine waterways. Perhaps the safest and the best way to visit this are is on tours. You can also avail of private vessel services from Basanti, Gosaba and Canning.