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Nature’s bounty at the Sundarbans

Nature’s bounty at the Sundarbans

PART 1
   

  Spread over nearly 6,000 square kilometres of thick and impenetrable vegetation, along the south-western coast of Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal, Sundarbans is considered the largest single mangrove forest in the world.

    Even during the early 1900s, the British, who ruled the Indian subcontinent at that time, considered it a place most inhospitable for the human beings when an author wrote: ‘It was a water-logged jungle, in which tigers and other wild beasts abounded. Attempts at reclamation had not been very successful.

   However, this very inhospitable feature of Sundarbans has kept it alive and well through the centuries even though Mughals first started leasing out lands to the British back in 1757. The area was mapped by the surveyor general as early as 1764 following soon after proprietary rights were obtained from the Mughal Emperor, Alamgir II, by the East India Company in 1757.

   We planned to visit Sundarbans during the fourth week of July this year with a view to assessing the conditions of the wildlife and the people living around the periphery of it following cyclone Aila that hit the area on May 25.

   Sixteen scientists, birdwatchers, nature photographers, litterateurs, journalists, artists and three students hired a 26-bed motor launch MV Vela, operated by the Bengal Tours of Bangladesh on the July 23, entered the forest the same night and returned to the shore by the evening of July 28.

   In addition to the main launch there were two additional boats, one a 10-seater speed boat and another 20-seater locally innovated power-pump driven wooden boat that can only move forward. Its backward movement is done manually by the boatmen.

   A melodious dawn chorus of hundreds of birds broke the silence of the night when I saw our launch was anchored a few hundred yards away from Sutarkhali Forest Station office under Khulna or Nalian Forest Range in the Sundarbans West Forest Division, that has another range called Burigoalini.

   Bangladesh Sundarbans has two forest divisions, first the west and the second being the Sundarbans East that also has two forest ranges, namely the Chandpai and Sharankhola.

   We were in the river Sutarkhali- one of the several hundred rivers, rivulets and tributaries that cut across the Sundarbans like a network of water bodies of various widths and lengths.

   During five days we had just covered a part of the Khulna range.

   As I peeped through the window of my sleeping cubicle a huge white-bellied Sea-Eagle flew past our boat without taking any notice of the launch. Herons of many colours and sizes started stealthily following aquatic animals, especially fishes from the muddy shore of the river from where the water had receded to the lowest level at ebb tide.

   Three villagers turned fisher-folk started fishing along the bank of the river with their casting net. The elderly two were virtually running along the bank and through knee deep water following shoals of fishes, especially mullets that were using the surface water for gathering food.

   They threw their cast-net with an overpowering zeal. In each cast they got just a few pieces of fishes as the rivers all through the Sundarbans have been over fished over the past half a century or so.

   After almost two hours of fishing they could catch little over two kilograms of fishes that was worth Taka 500 in the local market. They told me those fishes were not for sale but for their own consumption.

   After an early morning tea with biscuits I moved over the master’s bridge to get a full view of the surroundings. As the sun tried to brighten up the overcast sky, a passing shower dampened the launch and sun disappeared and remained hidden over two hours or so behind a blanket of clouds.

   I saw more movements of people than wildlife because of the rainy weather. By that time we got a call to join breakfast around 8am.

   After that we were herded on to the power-pump driven boat and were given a ration of sufficient bottled drinking water, banana and biscuits. We went to the forest office area where there was a little hamlet of less than 100 houses containing fisher-folks, woodcutters, honey collectors and crabbers all of whom are locally called Bawali.

   The area was teeming with birds, insects, crabs and aquatic animals. From nowhere there appeared two Lesser Flameback Woodpeckers chasing each other. Their fight continued right in front of us, some 10 metres away in the woods.

   At one stage the pair rolled into water below and continued the fight for next few moments when one managed to dislodge itself and fled from the arena.

   Due to the ebbing tide we could easily see a few species of snails crawling over the muddy forest floor where fiddler crabs busy displaying their large chela to the adversaries, chased and counter-chased one another for the possession of females nearby.

   Mudskippers were having a field day because local fishers had gone fishing to the deeper parts of the Sundarbans, for the day. On closer inspection I found a medium-sized honeycomb with an estimated 5000 Apis dorsata honeybees enveloping the queen bee and the comb.

   Nearby, there was a fresh water pond that retains rain water, used by all for both drinking purpose as well as other domestic chores.

   Boats heading for the day-long or week-long trip to the Sundarbans fill up many earthen 200 to 500 gallon capacity earthen casks, barrels or pots, locally called Motka or Kola.

   The pond supported a huge congregation of a small species of snail and several species of fish. One particular small one was a surface dweller and had a white spot on the back of the head obliterating the eyes that are located on the side of the face.

   On the way back to the boat I found a pair of white-collared Kingfisher performing a duet and dancing suggesting they might have a nest on the same tree.

   By the time we were back to the launch it was time for lunch. After a good break we headed back to the boat for a long trip through small rivers and canals in a nearby forest called Laodobe.

   We passed a few forest offices, hamlets and a huge fisheries project spread over several square kilometres just along the periphery of the Sundarbans. I believe it exports shrimp, prawns and crabs when other marine and freshwater fishes are sold in the national markets.

   After an hour drive through smaller rivers we reached Laodobe forest office sitting on the bank of a large canal through which tankers transport sea water for the fish farm.

Here the canopies of the forest trees were forming a bridge over the canal where Rhesus Macaques were busy eating fruits of Keora tree, Sonneratia apetala, shoots and fruit buds of other mangrove trees.

   The largest of the drongos of Asia is the Greater Racket-tailed Drongo, which abounds Sundarbans in good number. As it flies over the forest canopy or the canal its tips of two tail feather streamers kept flying like ribbons presenting a spectacular view.

   Its soliloquy is imitation of songs and call notes of several other birds sharing its habitat.

   A sub-adult Crested Serpent Eagle was drying its wings perched on top of a dead branch.

   Most rewarding was the sighting of the Ruddy Kingfisher- one of the eight species of kingfishers- found only in the Sundarbans. Nowhere else in the subcontinent can one find such a large diversity of kingfishers in a forest.

   This year the water level in the canals and rivers were much higher than the previous years. So we could not land on the bank of the Laodobe canal as there was no dry place.

   We got down to the forest jetty and walked through the office and accommodations for the foresters built on stilts.

   To my surprise I found two frogs taking shelter on the curved side of an empty shell of a coconut floating in water. A juvenile, non-venomous snake also took shelter on a piece of dead plant. Mynas were busy gathering food from the plants instead of the ground.

   On our return journey back to launch just before sundown a Monocled Cobra (Naja kaouthia) delighted us as it crossed the canola right in front of our boat.

   We followed it until it went ashore and climbed a Baen shrub (Avicennia alba) on the bank of the canal bordering a village.

   Seeing us the villagers gathered around to see the cobra. Our persuasion saved the life of the cobra as they were up in arms with sticks and pipes to nab it down.

PART 2

  

On the 2nd, we moved towards a forest office at a market place in a village named Nalian.

   This was an Aila impacted area. I walked through almost the whole area in about three hours. I met some people and talked to them about their problems.

   Almost four months after the Cyclone Aila, the villagers were still without any permanent source of freshwater because all their ponds and other freshwater bodies had been inundated by salt water. Neither the government agencies nor national and international NGOs have been able to solve this water problem. But villagers are not sitting idly. They have developed several local methods of collecting rain water.

   Although most of them are living in temporary huts built over the embankments that are the highest grounds in the area – with GolPata– a coconut leaf like fronds of Nypa Palm (Nypa fruticans) harvested in large quantity every year from the Sundarban. On all buildings, the rainwater that drops on the corrugated iron sheet or GolPata roofs, are harvested by channelling it to large water pots or Motka. Some houses have dug drains in their compounds to retain rainwater to be used for washing. A small segment of the people received government supplied canned water infrequently.

   People living around and moving inside the Sundarbans are almost entirely dependent on the harvested rainwater reserved in large ponds around forest offices, own and community maintained fish ponds and ditches. Aila has devastated all such water reservoirs.

   Despite all the negative things, I found a huge bee-hive just above man-height in a private compound teeming with life. The hive was more than a metre in length and nearly 75cm in width. There could be more than 10,000 Apis dorsata bees in the hive! The land owner told me that during the past five months, when the bee colony settled in his compound, he harvested honey thrice. Last time he got four litres of honey from this nest and a good quantity of beeswax. Honey is like a liquid gold for the people living around the Sundarbans as it always has a good market value.

   Lone Sodom’s apple (Calotropis gigantea) survives at the side of the embankment that passed through the whole of Nalian. Carpenter bees gathered over it and engrossed into drinking the nectar. We found two types of frogs on the bank of the River Shibsha when Magpie Robin was foraging through the marketplace and Black drongos perched atop damaged electric line swooping on passing dragonflies.

   The day was windy and rainy. So, as a group, we did not do much work other than watching the fishing activities of groups catching bony fishes, crabs and collecting shrimp larvae.

   Our launch headed for the next forest station–Ada Chai–after mid-day and reached the spot by sundown. On my insistence, some of us were allowed to leave the launch and go to the forest office.

   Not unexpectedly, I found a few common toads in the accommodation area of the forest office, as common house geckos were heading towards the solar powered lamps and frogs started croaking from the nearby bush. Most rewarding was the sight of a rare kind of wasp nest in the toilet of the forest office that I always try to visit in anticipation of spider nests, toads, snails and lizards.

   At night, I could hear at least two species of Nightjars and three species of owls when a local insect called Kewra puka or Kewra insect swarmed inside our lighted sleeping cubicles and another tiny bug or mite, called Baira puka bit us, for which I had a severe allergic reaction to my body while the rest of my compatriots absorbed its bite without any allergies.

   On the third day, some of us opted for the early morning bird watching trip on board the wooden boat. The majority were on the boat before sunrise after having hot tea with biscuits and bananas.

   After an hour’s drive through rivulets and canals, we were in the middle of the Sundarbans where we could see human souls but the area was filled with sounds of birds and loud calls of monkeys, crows, pheasant and red jungle fowl. It was so peaceful that we could even hear the sounds of crabs going in or coming out of their muddy holes when mudskippers changed positions while moving over soggy land.

   In one area, the banks covered a dwarf palm tree locally called Hental, Mangrove Palm (Phoenix paludosa), dappled with red fruits. Birds like the bulbuls, mynas and orioles were relishing the ripened dates.

   A Honey Buzzard, Shikra and a Brahminy Kite flew over our boat as woodpeckers, nuthatches, flowerpeckers and sunbirds crossed the canals time and again. By 9am, we had to return to the launch to finish breakfast and then headed for a visit to the oldest known temple inside the Sundarbans.

    As we were to walk through a patch of forest, generally infested with tigers, we were given two forest personnel with automatic weapons the day we started our journey. We took both a speed boat and a country boat so that 20 of us could comfortably sit and gun holders could have a better view of all of us and the passage.

   From Ada Chai forest office, we had additional forest personnel to lead us to the temple. We covered over six to seven kilometres before we found the narrow canal that allows for only one boat to pass at a time. The moment our boat entered a few metres inside this canal, we found fresh pug mark of a tiger that just crossed the canal in a hurry hearing our noise. About 200m from the mouth of the canal we anchored the boats and started walking in a tight row with one gunman at the head and one at the rear end. Another tiger crossed the head of the row, just 25m from the temple that is called Shibsha Temple.

   It is believed that the temple is 600 years old, built by Hindu Raja of the old 24 Parganas District in the West Bengal State of India. On our way to the temple, we saw lots of potteries and bricks lying around, indicating that there was a small settlement when the temple was built. Till date, people visit the temple during the beginning of the winter season.

   The temple is now no more than a ruin, with over-grown climbing figs and lianas. Bricks are small and are cemented with lime and sand.

   We could smell the scent of a tiger from within and around the temple. A few insect bats were hanging from the inner roof. There was no other animal in it.

   From the canal to the temple, the distance may not be more than 200m but it took us more than 45 minutes to cover this distance because the forest floor was covered with breathing roots or pneumatophore of mangrove plants. The mud was knee deep and that restricted our easy movement. Some have had to leave behind the shoes in knee deep mud and walk barefooted making it more difficult to negotiate the path.

   It is said that every year, a few pilgrims and boatmen are killed by tigers living around the temple when they come to perform their puja here. We were lucky as we produced a lot of noise to scare the tigers away. We returned to the launch right at lunch time but I went back to the Ada Chai office to watch birds and I was rewarded. I saw a flock of bird busy gathering a loose party of mixed species of insects as its food.

   By late afternoon, our team leader decided to move towards the next forest station at Pat Costa, along the Hangsha Raj rivulet–a segment of the main river Shibsha.

   When cruising through the main Shibsha, both banks were virtually covered with 15m high Kewra trees like two green walls. As it was high tide, we could see just a handful of spotted deers grazing on the flat river bank and rhesus macaques also picked freshly sprouted grass blades there. A few common or barn swallow followed our launch and hawked for insects from the water surface. This is a passage for migrants heading towards the south.

   Little before sunset, we reached Pat Costa. Our leader Khashru went to the forest office as we took the country boat headed for birdwatching. One of my compatriots, an ardent birdwatcher, photographer and dentist by profession, is Ronald Halder. He could imitate a few bird calls. He did manage to entice a very secretive but vocal Mangrove Pitta that is restricted to the Sundarban mangrove forest. By replying to Halder’s call, the pitta almost came towards the lighted side of a tree when one junior colleague coughed and the pitta disappeared immediately. However, we saw a few woodpeckers, canopy and shore-dwellers.

   On return to Pat Costa, we found Khashru had purchased crabs from the crab fishers. I went down to the office looking for toads and frogs. Here I found several species of toads and frogs which I had not seen before. Few large Tokay geckos also came out of hiding from under the building and stood on long stilts. We made a journey break here.

   The morning of the fourth day was very damp and rainy. We tried to move to the area most devastated by Aila, at Aangti Hara (meaning lost ring). We reached this small village with police and coastguards before mid-day. We walked through the village and met local people and officials and took a stock of their situation.

   Here also, the main problem is the lack of freshwater. Like others they are mostly dependent on rain water and their temporary shelters are all on the embankments because the villages remained submerged in the cyclone water. Fortunately, there is still a deep tubewell working that is pumping freshwater used solely for drinking.

   After lunch we started our return towards the divisional head quarter in Khulna from where we had started our launch journey in the first place. By nightfall, we reached Khulna and boarded a 10:30pm Dhaka bound air-conditioned bus for an eight-hour journey that will include a two to three hour wait for a ferry to cross the river Padma.

   At dawn, we reached the capital to see that the city received more rain than the Sundarbans had and many of us could not leave the bus because no public transport - rickshaws, taxis or three-wheelers - were plying the roads - the majority of which got submerged due to torrential rain. To reach my house, I had to wade through waist-deep, rapidly flowing water.

   We wished we had spent more time in the Sundarbans but returned to the capital in fear of excessive rain that had been forecasted there.

suorce: NEW AGE NEW AGE

Chandranath hill, Botanical Garden and Eco-park: Sitakunda, Chittagong. [সীতাকুন্ডের চন্দ্রনাথ পাহাড় এবং ইকো পার্ক]

Chandranath hill, Botanical Garden and Eco-park: Sitakunda, Chittagong. [সীতাকুন্ডের চন্দ্রনাথ পাহাড় এবং ইকো পার্ক]

Sitakunda, Introduce as northern gateways of country’s largest commercial hub Chittagong. It has a strong historical background which highlights the blessings of various saints. Moreover Chittagong is called ‘land of twelve saints’ [baro Awlia’r desh]. It’s also rich with natural scenic beauty and cultural heritage. Sitakunda is predominantly an agricultural area. Now enormous industries settled here. Also has the largest ship breaking industry in the world.   

The legends of the area state the sage Bhargava created a pond (Kunda) for Sita Devi to bathe in when her husband Lord Ramchandra visited during his exile in the forests. Sitakunda derived its name from this incident. Sitakunda was almost ruled alternatively by various Buddhist rulers of Myanmar in the east and Muslims rulers of Bengal in the west. Three main religious legacies of subcontinent makes bright and diversify trend but a common element for mankind.

Sitakunda stands on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway [old sheer-shah grand road] and is only 40, km. northwest off Chittagong.

We introduce here two main attraction of Sitakunda, as Chandranath hill and Botanical Garden and Eco-park.

Chandranath hill is one of the most famous places of pilgrimage of the Hindu Community. It draws Hindu devotees from all over the subcontinent particularly during the observance of Shiva Charturdoshi. There are many religious places in Sitakunda and surroundings of it. Among them Chandranath Temple, on the peak of the Chandranath Hill bears the most religious testimony. Chandranath hill has narrow zigzag paths surrounded by numerous green trees. Many visitors come here everyday from every part of the country. There is a small waterfall that has enriched the natural beauty of the hill. At rainy season and autumn this peak overflows by clouds. Its take looks a  like  fantasy land.

A big fair named 'Siva Chaturdoshi' is held in the month of Falgun every Bengali calendar year at Sitakunda. A big fair is also held on 'Amabashya rat' (newmoon night) of that month. Tens of thousands of Hindu pligrims of all ages from all over the country come to Sitakunda during the fair every year. Those are main seasonal attraction of this temple.

The first eco-park in Bangladesh, along with a botanical garden, was established in 2001 on 808 hectares (1,997 acres) of the Chandranath Hills in Sitakunda. The eco-park was established to facilitate biodiversity conservation, natural regeneration, new plantations and infrastructure development, as well as to promote nature-based tourism to generate income. The park, 405 hectares (1,001 acres), and the garden, 403 hectares (996 acres), under the Bariadhala Range of Chittagong Forest Division, are rich with natural Gymnosperm tree species including Podocarpus neriifolius and species of Gnetum and Cycas.The Park is reported to be able to receive 25,000 visitors in a single weekend. with the botanical garden included, the number of visitors can reach up to 50,000. 

Entry fee is only tk. 5.00.

This is a reserved forest block with unique natural beauty. This is a promising site for developing habitat of wild flora and fauna, flourishing eco-tourism and developing research and education for scientists of home and abroad. Many serpentine paths have passed through the hill and we went to the hilltop climbing the path. A natural spring was also there and luckily some of us were able to take bath under the heavy dropping of the cataract

There are long sea beaches in this area; this position of Bay of Bengal is called sandwip channel. From the top of hill you can obverse the beauty of this beach.  Surrounded by green tamarisk trees, the beauty of the beach is indescribable. The heavy waves of the sea were hitting the beach as if there is an intense friendship between the beach and the vast sea. Visitor spends a remarkable moment at this beach.

Transports are available form Chittagong town to Sitakunda. Or visitor can takes a break to the way of Dhaka-Chittagong journey.

Other attractive Tourist Spot:  Bhatiary Golf Club, Coastal Embankment, Bhatiary Bipass and Artificial Lake, Shahashradhara and Ushna Prashraban.

Information and Photo courtesy: Wikipedia, The daily star, Flickr, Bangladesh forest department, sitakundabd.com and others.

Road to Noakhali [নোয়াখালীর পথে]

Road to Noakhali [নোয়াখালীর পথে]

The name Noakhali came from two separate bangla word ‘Noa’ [new] and ‘Khal’ [cannal] in 1968. The ancient name of Noakhali was Bhulua.

Noakhali is known as land of coconut and betel-nut.  Noakhali district was created in 1821. In the 1660s, the agricultural activities of the north-eastern region of Bhulua were seriously affected by floodwater of the Dakatia River flowing from the Tripura hills. To salvage the situation, a canal was dug in 1660 that ran from the Dakatia through Ramganj, Sonaimuri and Chaumuhani to divert water flow to the junction of the rivers Meghna and Feni. After excavating this long canal, Bhulua was renamed "Noakhali".

Three famous tourist location of Noakhali are Bajra Shahi Mosque, Gandhi Ashram Nijhum Dwip and …

Bajra Shahi Mosque

Bajra Shahi Mosque is located in the village of Bajra under Begumganj thana of Noakhali district. The mosque was erected by one Aman Allah in 1741-42 AD during the reign of the Mughal emperor Muhammad Shah.
The Bengali and Persian inscriptions fixed over the gateway of the outer wall and on the inside wall of the mosque record that it was thoroughly repaired in the years between 1318 to 1335 BS by the Bajra Zamindars Khan Bahadur Ali Ahmad and Khan Bahadur Mujir Uddin Ahmad. The mosque is now in a fairly good state of preservation. This is valuable archeological resource of Bangladesh, it consist a versatile mode of architectural design.

Gandhi Ashram

Gandhi Ashram is a living memorial to the most remarkable of Gandhi's partition peace missions. Situated about 23 km. Northwest of Choumuhani town and 2 km. East of Chatkhil at Jayag under Begumganj upazilla, about 30 km north of Noakhali district headquarters. This ashram devoted to Gandhi’s ideology Historical Charka and other valuables used by Mahatma are preserved in this ashram and those evoke deep respect to the unique memories of the great soul. Every morning and evening, people gather for a prayer meeting in a room which still contains mementoes of Gandhi's visit here in January 1947.

Nijhum Dwip

The name 'Nijhum Dwip' itself contains a romantic connotation about the place; it gives one a sense of silence and natural splendour unsullied by human exploration. Which it really is? The island is situated between Noakhali and Bhola under Hatiya upazila Upazila in Noakhali District. It covers a total area of 16,352 hectares. With proper facilities this Island could be prime tourist spot after St. Martins Island.

At one time it was called Char Osman. It is the southern most island of Bangladesh that confluence of the Meghna estuary on the Bay of Bengal. Details...

Char

A very little number of travelers knew about ‘Char’ as attractive tour place. The swift currents that course down from the Himalayas, does not only bring river erosion but also opportunity: a rich bath of fertile silt that, when it reaches the Bay of Bengal, settles along the coast, gradually forming new land called "chars." The district of Noakhali has actually gained more than 28 square miles of land in the past 50 years. A surreal vision grows on traveler eyes when they enjoy sprinkling moment with uncovered nature of Char. It’s simply rural reflection of Bangladesh, heartily attract travelers. The settlers live here together amidst natural calamities. 

The most prominent Char are- Char Osman, Subarna Char, Char Jabbar, Char Bata, Char Wapda and Char Clark.

Attractive place in Maijdee- Maijdee boro Majsid, maijdee court building.

How to go: Noakhali is roughly 150 km from the capital and it is a smooth 4-5 hour drive. First-rate highway restaurants along the way mean you can stop for a breather as often as you like. Daily bus services [Bilash, VIP service, Shahi, Sea line at tk.200] are available from Dhaka to Noakhali every hour from sayedabad. Daily Train services are available [morning and evening] from kamalapur railway station. You can choose another road by boat to go to 'Nijhum Dwip'.

Accommodation facilities are limited in Naokhali. Some sort of medium level hotel and boarding are available in Choumuhani and Maijdee.


Information and photo courtesy by google.