There are places which resist definition. A magical moment of suspended reality. They do not yield their secrets easily, nor they can be made to turn on a pithy phrase or a charming paragraph. The river’s chamnnels are spread across the land like a fine-mesh net, creating a terrain where the boundaries between land & water are always mutating, always unpredictable.
The Sunderbans are the largest (4000 sq kms) mangrove forests in the world. These mangroves – a mixture of trees and shrubs growing in saline coastal habitats. From the water, one can see the gnarled, clenched forms of trees, seldom higher than one-storey house but providing effective camouflage to the tiger. There are more than 65 plant species in the Sunderbans suited to survive in its estuarine conditions & saline inundation that occurs as a result of tidal effects. Rustic Jungle. Kingdom of the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger,
Cruising along the Sajnekhali Wildlife Santuary is a non-stop lesson in biology. Fiddler crabs, almost impossible to see with the naked eye, but coloured iridescent red, yellow or ble, constantly scuttle in and out of their hidey-holes. Another common denizen of the shore is the water monitor or tarkel as it is locally called. The next level of the forest is occupied by middle-size fauna such a alligators, deer & wild boar. Alligators are spotted during the winters when they come out to bask in the sun. Deer can be seen round the year in small herds or in pair. But the most ewarding sighting in the Sunderbans are the Irrawady Dolphins.
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