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Our last night in the Andamans
had us taking a nostalgic walk for last
views of the lights twinkling along the
shores of Port Blair and the next morning
we were flying back to Calcutta for the
last leg of our journey – the Sunderbans.
Sunderbans
December 2007, Sheila
For the return flight you have to go through
the same procedure as previously only this
time you are grounded and waiting for your
flight to get runway space – it finally
lands an hour late and you are ready to
take off for Calcutta flying over the Sunderbans
and the Ganga delta and getting fantastic
views of all the winding waterways and silt
islands. We landed, got into our cars and
headed straight for a three hour drive to
Sonakhali where we would shift to a boat
for a further 3 hour river run to our camp.
The drive takes you through numerous small
villages and towns and surprisingly all
the markets have their shutters down –
apparently there is a long siesta time,
the shops open in the morning, close for
early lunch and long snooze and then reopen
for the evening. Halfway we stopped at a
little tea shop for the yummiest singharas
(samosas) and if you could ignore the thousands
of swarming bumble bees, the best Bengali
sweets – scrumptious sandesh and mishti
dahi. Many plates later we drove through
paddy fields and prawn fisheries and huge
kiln towers baking adobe bricks –
the same scenery we had had aerial views
of from the plane.
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People
Ferry |
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At Sonakhali we transferred ourselves and
our bags to the waiting boat. At the jetty
a small ferry boat laden with people some
sitting, most standing, slowly made its
way to the other shore. The boat and the
people looked so vulnerable that I was reminded
of various news paper reports of accidents
and sent a quick prayer for everyone’s
safety. Whatever preconceived notions one
has of impoverished Bengal and small boats
are delightfully overthrown. Our journey
started with a platterful of fresh fruit
and then coffee and biscuits and cake all
served in a tray with
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Fishing
for Prawn Seeds |
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beautiful china. The
boat has comfortable areas for sleeping
and bathrooms with running water.
Sheer luxury like having your own
cruise down the river. We sat on the
deck and absorbed the atmosphere.
The wide expanse of the river with
village bunds on either side. Men,
women and children walking waist deep
in the water and slippery mud pulling
a net to collect prawn seeds. They
empty the contents of their nets into
pots where water is added and then
little by little the mixture is poured
into a white container swirled and
scrutinized. All tiny prawnlings are
then removed by a shell used as a
scoop and put into a separate smaller
vessel. We meandered on, enjoying
a picturesque sunset and finally arrived
at Bali Island and the Help tourism
centre by 6 pm. Our rooms resembled
mud huts and one saw mosquito nets
after a really long |
time. Night fall and we were treated to
a show by the local village troupe of the
famous folk tale of the region – the
story of Bono Bibi and Dukhe. “Bono”
is the Bengali pronunciation and word for
“Van” or forest so Bonobibi
translates into forest goddess. She protects
all those who pray to her from the perils
of the forest – specifically the Sunderbans
tiger who seems to have lost his fear of
man and treats him like easy prey. The story
was enacted with much pathos and drama by
the troupe with the little boy Dukhe specially
adopting one very piteous pose with bent
hand on chest and singing plaintively. One
of the villainous, easily- corrupted boatmen
seemed to me to resemble Shoaib Akhtar,
probably the recently concluded cricket
series on my mind.
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Bali
Jungle Camp |
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MB
Sundari "grewalis" |
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Next morning we set of early aboard the
MS Sundari “grewalis” the spiffiest
boat in the Sunderbans. Our first stop was
Sajnekhali where you have to get all the
permits to enter the sanctuary. We walked
around as the formalities were being taken
care of, and saw many birds in the trees
behind the crocodile pond – Lotens
Sunbirds, Purple Rumped Sunbirds –
the early morning light was so good that
we could see the greens in the armpit and
head, the purples and blues, and all the
feathers shone. Common Iora, White eyes,
Pompadour Green Pigeons, Green bee eaters,
Bronzed Drongos earning their name, all
put on a show that had us stuck to our binoculars.
A Common Kingfisher posed patiently by the
crocodile enclosure and then it was time
to head out to the Sudhanyakhali watchtower
with permits in
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Bronze
Drongo Dicrurus aeneus
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Bronze
Drongo Dicrurus aeneus
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hand. One of the first birds you see, and
quite the commonest, is the Black capped
Kingfisher, an extremely handsome bird with
a black cap (obviously) and beautiful purple
wings. Kingfishers are abundant in this
area and the next one we saw was the Brown
winged Kingfisher that shows a brilliant
turquoise in its rump when it flies. I don’t
know quite what you imagine Sunderbans is
like but I had an image of a dark forest
with mangrove trees growing thick and narrow
channels of water, somewhat like the enchanted
forests of fairy tales ala Sleeping Beauty.
Well nothing could be further from reality.
Your boat cannot make it through smaller
canals that cut through the islands and
consequently you sail in the wider streamlets
and rivers. The islands with the Mangrove
trees are on either side and though they
look quite menacingly fortified, bristling
with spiky upward growing roots, the trees
are short and don’t give you a hemmed
in feeling. In fact instead of looking dark
the whole area looks bright, bathed in a
silvery light – the light turns the
sky white, the water reflects this light
like a silver mirror and the grey mud banks
also quite blindingly reflect the light
in a darker shade of silver-gray –
it is like looking at a monochrome picture.
Silhouettes of birds stand out in the brightness
– egrets and herons patiently waiting
for food to pass their way, Whimbrels running
on the
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Black-capped
Kingfisher Halcyon pileata
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Brown-winged
Kingfisher Halcyon amauroptera |
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banks, Common Sandpipers bobbing their tails
and Estuarine Crocodiles basking like logs.
As we turned a corner we chanced upon fifty
Whistling Teals. We sailed closer, they
all got wary and as one turned chicken,
they all took off protesting vehemently.
They circled for a bit, and as you are not
allowed to drop anchor or stop anywhere
in the sanctuary, we circled with them and
got good views when they resettled. We reached
Sudhanyakhali watchtower to be greeted by
tales of how the tiger had just passed fifteen
minutes ago and how yesterday he had stayed
near the tower for 5 hours!!!! We had to
content ourselves with paw prints for evidence
though at one point of time we did hear
a pig scream and then that sound was cut
off abruptly turning up our bloodthirsty
hopes of seeing a tiger with kill in
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The
Mangroves |
mouth but alas, it was not to be. The first
living creatures to greet us were fiddler
crabs in the sand banks – little red
ones scurrying around, raising their pincer
threateningly at each other; yellow ones
with patterned backs added colour with a
couple of small brilliant blue ones as well.
From the tower we saw five Spotted Deer
feeding peacefully, 3 Forest Wagtails flew
by and their spot was taken by a group of
Small Minivets. A Clamorous Reed Warbler
called and drew our attention while a Water
Monitor quietly made his way to the waters
edge to bask in the sun. A Brown Shrike
sat still while monkeys raised a racket
jumping from tree to tree. We returned to
Sundari and continued on our journey enjoying
a breakfast of aloo puri, chutney, fruit,
coffee and fresh sweet honey from the forest.
As you sail along a little of the sense
of calm and peace of the river fills you
and you sit back enjoying the scenery, occasionally
rising to see Golden Plovers, Curlews, Lesser
Sand Plovers, a Changeable Hawk Eagle perched
on a tree, a Short-toed Snake Eagle flying
with us and Rose-ringed Parakeets calling.
Our boatmen got excited at the sight of
Collared Kingfishers, this time Todiramphus
chloris humii, a different sub-species
from the Andaman ones. We then saw a kingfisher
sitting on dry twig at the edge of a pool
of stagnant water, near Gosaba…..the
elusive Blue-eared Kingfisher (Alcedo meninting).
Technically while it is mentioned in the
checklist of the Sundarbans, there has been
no confirmed sighting for several years.
It is distinguished from the Common Kingfisher
by the lack of the rufous cheek patch and
is much deeper blue above. It also has a
strongly blue and black barred crown. The
pale rufous patch in front of the eye is
much more conspicuous. A little further,
Green-billed Malkoha flew out of the forest
and sat in a tree in clear view for a few
minutes. At the Sunderbans you only get
to see the birds if they are gracious enough
to come out and sit on
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Whimbrel |
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Estuarine
Crocodile |
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the trees at the shore, as you are not allowed
to get off and walk on any of the islands,
so most of the time you can hear birds and
have to identify them from their call. Soon
its time for a fresh Hilsa lunch and then
tea and biscuits and before you know it
we are back at the watch tower to see the
sunset and slowly wind our way home. At
dinnertime we heard some crackers going
off and went to investigate with torches
in hand. Apparently the Forest Guards on
the boats patrolling the areas burst these
crackers if they see a tiger leaving his
own island and try to make it to the villages,
the crackers are meant to scare him into
returning. They must have succeeded as we
spent an uneventful, peaceful night.
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Fiddler
crab |
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Fiddler
Crab |
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Next morning we set off for Dobanki Camp.
A White-bellied Sea Eagle was one of the
first birds to greet us along with the usual
egrets and herons. We sailed to Panch Mukhani
the confluence of five rivers – Do
Bakhi, Khona Khali, Pir Khali, Gomti, and
Betda. The low tide had exposed the mud
banks and we saw Whimbrels, Lesser Sand
Plovers, Common Sandpipers, Eurasian Curlews
and Red Shanks. You can see the tide marks
on the Mangrove tree trunks – they
are wet and dark up to a level – and
even the leaves have two different shades.
Stilt roots prop the trees while
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Collared
Kingfisher Todriamphus
chloris |
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Blue-eared
Kingfisher Alcedo meninting |
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upturned roots reach out for air. The islands
have many different species of Mangrove
trees and some islands are just covered
by small thorny palms. An unusual beak had
us sailing to the opposite shore for a better
look – Terek Sandpiper. At Dobanki
we saw a Yellow Wagtail, White throated
Fantail, Brown Shrike, Black Redstart, Common
Iora, Great Tit, Bronze Drongo, Common,
White-throated, Collared and Black capped
Kingfishers. On our way back to
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Aeriel
Roots |
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Stilts |
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Bali Island we saw 2 Dolphins, dark fins
and tail flues, in the distance. Across
our camp we could see the forest officials
repairing the gap in the fence through which
the tiger must have attempted his raid the
previous night. Lunch and then it was time
to pack bags and head back by boat to Sonakhali
and then by car to Calcutta. We added a
pair of Pied Kingfishers to our birding
list on our return journey taking our tally
of Kingfishers up to ten. A fisherman held
up a ray for our inspection while villagers
waved bye from the bunds. We drove back
through bustling night markets populated
predominantly by men in shirt sleeves and
mufflers wrapped around their heads –
seems the most important item of clothing
in the region. We reached Calcutta at night
and the next morning were at the airport
to catch our flight back home. All good
things must come to an end, but for us every
end is the beginning of another plan for
another great delhibird adventure……so
here’s till the next time –
Happy Birding.
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Bono
Bibi |
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