Sunderbans

Sundarban Tiger Reserve situated mostly within 24-Parganas (South) and partly in 24-Parganas (North) districts of West Bengal, is a part of the famous "Sundarbans" which covers the southern portion of gangetic delta bordering the Bay of Bengal. Sundarbans falls, a little south of tropic of cancer between the latitudes 21 31 and 22 31 North and 88 10 and 89 51 East longitudes.

Upto August, 1947, the Indian part of Sundarban was under erstwhile Sundarbans Division with headquarters at Khulna under single forest charge, along with the eastern part of the area lying in the Khulna district, now in Bangladesh.

Sundarban Tiger Reserve occupies a major part of the Indian Sundarban, which has been declared as Sundarban Biosphere Reserve since March 29, 1989. Sundarban is the largest inter-tidal area of approximately 26000 sq. kms formed by the meeting of the two great river systems Ganga & Brahmaputra with the Bay of Bengal along India & Bangladesh. Out of this total area, 9630 Sq.Km. is in Indian side.

Importance of Sundarban Mangrove

• Largest mangrove reserve on globe and contains more than 60% of India’s total mangrove reserve.
  
  
• Only mangrove tiger land in the world.
  
  
• Mangrove plant association exhibit a great generic/species diversity and abode of rare and highly endangered flora and fauna.
  
  
• Mangrove reserve acts as a nursery for a number of fish and shellfish, which form the base food chain for entire coastal fishing of Eastern India.
  
  
• Large chunk of Sundarban mangroves protect metropolis of Calcutta suburbs from the frequent gales originating from Bay of Bengal.
  
  
• A world Heritage Site.

Man - Tiger Conflicts & Straying
Sundarban Tiger Reserve provides characteristic type of habitat suitable for animals inhabiting vast tidal swamp area. Because of their intimate association with the estuarine environment, sizeable portion of aquatic and semi-aquatic animal communities are inter-related with the animals inhabiting the land areas.

The uniqueness of the habitat is said to have contributed to certain behavioral trades, which are the characteristic of Sundarban tigers only. The man-eating trait of Sundarban tigers have become almost a legend in Bengal and elsewhere.

Sundarban tigers have propensity of man eating for which various reasons have been given. The study on tiger straying showed the remarkable feature. It was reported that in the last 12 years out of 120 cases of tiger straying, the tiger has attacked human being only in six cases whereas most of the deaths have occurred within the forests.

This peculiarity in the tiger behaviour perhaps has only one logic that within the forest area i.e. their habitat, they consider all moving objects as part of their prey. It has been reported that tiger also preys upon the kill of crocodile. It is considered that man-eating propensity of tiger in this area is hereditary acquired over a period of generations.

Probably the reasons for straying are biological rather than physical constraints. Occasionally old tigers driven by dominant animal do take shelter in the adjacent mangrove plantations near the villages. Straying is one of the biggest constraints for the management of Sundarban Tiger Reserve.

Considering the age-old animosity between man and tiger, the Sundarban tigers is feared & not loved. It is worshiped irrespective of caste and religion by calling it by different names of "Dakhin Roy", "Shah Jungali".

In recent time tigers were killed by the villagers when they strayed into villages at Pakhiralaya & Kultali (in 24 Pargana(S) Division). Following tables give the idea of seriousness of the problem of tiger straying & that of tiger attacks on human beings.

Aims and Objectives of Management of the Project Tiger Area
Project Tiger is a comprehensive natural eco-system conservation Project. Aim is to promote natural ecosystem by mitigating man-induced limiting factors and to bring it as close natural functioning as possible.

Further emphasis has been laid to promote welfare conditions for the naturally occurring association of fauna so as to bring them up to the level sustainable by the intrinsic carrying capacity of the habitat. While taking care of above two aspects, the conservation strategy aims at preservation of the bio-diversity of the both flora and fauna in the unique mangrove ecosystem.

Objectives of management of the protected area of Sundarban Tiger Reserve

• To ensure effective preservation and protection of faunal and floral association in the reserve from poaching and external influences and ensuring preservation of biodiversity in this unique mangrove system.
  
  
• Preservation of the habitat from various hazards and interference such as denundation, erosion etc.
  
  
• To manage the habitat and the wildlife of the area to achieve optimum level of population of tiger and its prey base and also other faunal associates.
  
  
• Elimination of exploitation of resources to ensure maintenance of natural ecosystem of plant and animal community within the reserve by way of gradual reduction in the dependence of the people living in the fringe area of the tiger habitat on natural resources.
  
  
• To reduce man animal conflicts by way of people friendly management measures to support for conservation awareness building, participation and eco-development activities in the fringe villages and imparting training to the local youth in tackling tiger straying at the initial level and developing skill amongst the local staff in combating the straying problem with the help of local youth and also imparting necessary training in tranquillising and capturing the strayed animals for translocation into deep forest.
  
  
• To develop research facility and capability for biological and sociological sciences with the objective to support management for effective conservation of the protected area.
  
  
• To develop monitoring capability to regularly monitor population of tiger and its co-predator, lesser cats, prey species and their habitats including all endangered as well as rare species and their habitats for assessing their conservation status.
  
  
• To promote eco-tourism within the reserve with a view to gaining support for conservation providing facilities for nature education, interpretation and embarking on publicity campaign for conservation using tiger as a flagship species. The mangrove interpretation Centre at Sajnekhali is being developed in this regard.
  
  
• To avail support and collaboration from voluntary organisations/associations in awareness building and participatory management of evolve effective conservation strategy. The WWF-TCP has extended support to the Sundarban Tiger Reserve for infrastructure building to enhance management capacity .

Constraints in Management
Mangrove vegetation and the ecosystem has been subjected to different pressures:

• Reclamation of the area through bunding erection of earthen dykes have hampered the free flow of tidal water and interfered in the drainage system resulting in siltation and rise of creek beds.
  
  
• Banks of the creeks and rivers are subjected to regular erosion due to tidal action of the river.
  
  
• Poachers are active for tiger, deer, marine turtles, etc.
  
  
• Tiger straying create conflict with local villagers.
  
  
• There are approximately 56 number of low lying conglomeration of islands separated by interconnected tidal creeks and marshes with 2000 km. of interconnected waterways of creeks and rivers. The means of travel is manly by watercraft. No electricity exists in main villages and R.T. is the means of communication. A large number of staff stays in boats.
  
  
• During reclamation large area of mangrove vegetation has been cleared causing damage to the ecosystem.