Sunderban National Park, located in West Bengal, India was established in 1973 as a tiger reserve it was renamed as national park in 1978. Total area covered by the park is 169950 hectares (core) and 88,527 hectares (buffer).
It is believed that name Sunderbans is derived from 'Sundri' – a plant found in local mangroves and 'bans' meaning forest. Some people also believe that the name means 'beautiful forest'. The Sunderbans situated in an area over 1,000,000 hectares formed by Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghana rivers is the world's largest delta. Due to monsoon flooding every year the region which has extensive mangrove forests and the contours are in constant state of flux. Roughly one third of the delta portion is water which consists of rivers, channels and tidal creeks which is upto 5 km wide. Major part of Sunderbans falls in Bangladesh. In India there is the national park which overlooks Bay of Bengal. West, South and East portion of sunderbans wildlife sanctuary lies in Bangladesh. The Sunderbans parks are covered in mangrove forests. There are 3 main zones in Sunderban forest which depends on the level of salt in the soil and a freshwater zone, a moderately saline zone and saline zone.
Within Sunderban human beings can take up the activities like fishing, timber extraction and honey collection. Due to common features in four parks they have been merged together to form one Sunderban. The main attraction of the Sunderban are the Tiger, and mainly the large reptiles on the harbor like Monitor, Lizard, Estuarine Crocodile and the Olive Ridley Turtle. In recent decades some more animals have also been added locally like the Leopard, Indian Rhinoceros, Javan Rhinoceros, Swamp Deer, Hog Deer and Water Buffalo.
The best time to visit Sunderban is during winters between September and March.
To get to sunderban Natioanal Parkthe nearest airport is Calcutta, the nearest railway station is Canning and nearest town is Gosaba.
There are regular bus services from Kolkata to this place. Best way to access the sanctuary is through waterways. One can be more comfortable if they plan the visit to Sunderban on conducted tours.
