Sunderbans - river, tiger and solitude - Part-1

Frankly speaking, the prospect of this trip didn't excite me much , come on i was not really hoping to spot tiger in tourist hot spots where the silence of the jungle is shattered by roar of hundreds of motors of boats and tigers are not known to be that publicity hungry. What i was looking forward to were virgin vistas of deltas and river on bright winter days.
So there we were at 10 in morning gazing at the late morning traffic at the river off Nejat(some 25 km from Basirhat-my hometown that makes it like a 92 odd kms off kolkata) . The drive to Nejat was on 6-seater autorickshaw tossing and turning under a golden morning sun and some fresh green countryside parading either sides. The other men of the group followed us on the bike.
The group, the "us" in the story were 2 families with kids and their relatives a total of 10 heads. My mother's colleagues family were the organisers.
Hence here we were at the banks of the river at what happened to be local jetty withy ferries hawking for passengers . Our transport was a medium sized country motor boat with a lower level and a shamiana fitted upper deck . There was a small toilet at the rear and the a little space for cooking simmilarily there was deck portion in the front also culminating in a pointed nose or "head" of the boat, this was their place of worship. They meticulously kept it clean , washed it mornings and evenings and stuck incense stick on it forbade anybody to step on it . For these hard men on such bleak landscape of water , poverty that was their one point of providence hope. After a wait that looked like an eternity the boat was tied to the dock and people started getting busy loading stuff. There were curious and alien faces on the other side of my rock of aloofness. A few stiff intros and cold handshakes later i , chastised by that little inner voice went ahead to help the men get drinking water on 3 huge drums on boat .
Finally they lifted the anchors around 11:50 on that morning of 26th Dec 2008 and off we started on our voyage :) to sunderbans . Sunderbans were actually my backyard and it was a shame of me not been there . Provisions were packed , its going to be a kings banquet on board for next almost 2 days and then i was told that for your average middle/upper-middle class bengali families it was the normal stuff. What with muttons and lobster and country chicken and eggs and pulaos and all . Hats off to the 2 men who were travelling with the party for helping out on these household stuff and to my mom , aunt and the other 2 ladies it was but so natural for them to add a little magic and touch of mother to all that was cooked and that by the way meant a lot of work.
Under the bright sun and brighter laugter was a little shade of loneliness and a silent wish for someone who could not be there but who should have been .....
The previous night i was looking up the net for what was in store for us in the trip and so before long i began poking the organisers with queries about our itenary desperately trying to sound knowledgable about the geography at the same time and to my delight and surprise i discovered that they were also pretty much clueless. This is a rough sketch of what i gathered :- Sunderbans are the biggest delta region of the world which the forest that is sunderbans is on thousands of little islands and enmeshing them are networks of rivers as they all race to the sea(bay of bengal) - we are talking of a huge area more than 10,000 sq km of absolute wilderness , a normal trip of sunderbans include cruise through the rivers of a little portion of this big national park . There are villages dotting the edge of sunderbans but these are most cut off , economically bacward and challenging places to live . These places dont have electricity and no supply of fresh water
, tubewells cant be dug as the water that comes up is brackish. Our first stop and our stay for the 2 nights that we will be out on jungles will be in one of such places which was 5 hours journey from Nejat. This place is known as Pakhirala/Sajnekhali. This is the common entry point for all trips inside sunderbans, the place though without the basic amenities has come up as a tourist hub with lodges and hotels and a bustling market . Villagers also rent out rooms to augment the insufficient lodging capacity vis-a-vis the ever swelling hordes. Some tourists brave it out on the boat at the night if they dont land on anything. The boatmen normally do have tie ups with hotels/villagers so they can guide for accomodation. Mobile phones are a real boon to these poor people for their livelihoods, it is very heartening to see how technology is changing lives of people more here for better where they needed it the most . Another good thing all through this remote landscape except for the very interior areas of the jungle one got good network coverage. It really helps to be well-informed about room rates and be little polished on bargaining skills here as with other tourist spots mobbed up at tourist seasons this is wild west of local economy and if you are not watching ur back people will shave u off left , right and center. When we reached Pakhirala that evening by 5:30 there was a logjam of boats on the river stretch there , night sky on the river lit up with the lights of the boats and aromas of their cooking.
We got 2 rooms at village a longish walk away from the jetty and stomach this, no electricity except for CFL s burning dimly on what they said was powereed by solar panel , asbestos roof, mud floor , a big opening with a sheet of ploythene on it for window and December cold. To top it off was a dirty loo outside the house in the backyard and water to be fetched from a pond and all in pitch blackness of the night. These for 500 bucks a pop per nite, now that was some smart busniness. 2 rooms that we got were not enough for all of us so a few men had a boys nite out on the boat.
The next day starting at 9 will be our venture into the wild , but before we actually can go any further south we have to take permit for us from the forest office there . As Sunderbans is a national park and also this area is close to the international border with Bangladesh, forest department regulates the tourist traffic in the forest areas. The permit allows tourists only to travel till a certain point , it was the island of "Netadhopani" for us beyond that the boats are not allowed , the core area of sunderbans start from there and go to much beyond. Our route is going to be somewhat like this Sajnekhali-Sudanyakhali-Dobanki - Pancha mukhi (meeting point of five rivers) - Netadhopani and back to Sajnekhali for night halt. The day after morning we were coming back to Nejat from where we started.
Nights in villages are eerie as we clung to our spot the of light the mighty winter night stalked us with its mystery . There were silent wishes, hopes , prayers and chills in us for the lord of it all that we have come to meet -- The Royal Bengal Tiger - but little did we know that it will turn out this way ......(to be continued)