Katka

Katka is one of Heritage sites in Sunderban. In Katka there is a wooden watching tower of 40 ft. high from where you can enjoy the scenic beauty of Sunderban. A beautiful sea beach is there is Katka; you will enjoy while you are walking to go the beach from the watching tower. Katka for deer, tiger, crocodiles, varieties of birds and monkey, morning and evening symphony of wild fowls. Vast expanse of grassy meadows running from Katka to Kachikhali (Tiger Point) provide opportunities for wild tracking. Forest Department Rest-House located here. Prior booking essentia

HISTORY OF THE SUNDARBANS

Sundarban- The Beautiful Forest of Bangladesh

Sundarban- The Beautiful Forest of Bangladesh - For more of the funniest videos, click here

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The present tidal delta Sundarbans was originally occupied by vast stretches of grassland filled with saline marshes and tropical wetlands containing one of the worlds' largest stretches of biodiversity-rich forests, The archeological evidence of human civilization dates to around 400-300 BC. Post 1200 AD, the history of the Sundarbans is one of continuous conversion of forest tracts to wet-rice cultivation under the influence of pioneers professing an Islamic Sufi identity. The process of bringing virgin forest under cultivation continued unabated in the Mogul era (1575 – 1765).   

  

When river Ganges changed course from the original Hugli channel to combine upstream with the Brahmaputra, most parts of the 24 Parganas Sundarbans faced increased salinity and this gradually affected the flora and fauna of the area. The era also witnessed devastating cyclones, like the one in 1584, which is reported to have claimed  about 2,000,000 living creatures. 

 

The British East India Company set up their headquarters at Calcutta in 1757 at the edge of the Sundarbans. The forests at that time stretched uninterrupted for 19,200 square kms and retained much of their splendor and diversity.
 

In 1928 the British Government assumed proprietary rights to the forest and, in 1830, began leasing out tracts of the forests for reclamation ~ a process which continued until 1875-76.
 

By 1873 nearly 5,100 square kms of forests had been converted into agricultural land and the Sundarbans area forest cover had been effectively reduced to about 14,100 square kms. In 1875-1876 the government declared un-leased forest reserved, and placed them under the jurisdiction of the Forest Department– a move which created today's Sundarbans forest.
  A variety of wildlife survived till the latter part of the 19th century despite the rapid depletion of habitat. Hunter records
 

"Tigers, leopards, rhinoceros, wild buffaloes, wild hogs, wild cats, barasinga, spotted deer, hog deer, barking deer, and monkeys are the principal varieties of wild animals found in Sundarban" in 1875. But the events of the next few decades led to the near complete destruction of the grasslands and rainforests, which coupled with the increase in salinity spelt the death knell for the  rhinoceros, leopard, wild buffalo, swamp deer and hog deer  Only the tiger, wild pig and spotted deer survived the mass species extinction
  

From the early of the 20th century, the Sundarban forests were managed using Curtis's working plan which focused on scientific harvesting. This plan was in effect when partition divided the administration of the Sundarbans between Bangladesh) and India. Both countries continued to protect the area after independence.
  

The Bangladesh forests in the 24 Parganas by then had been seriously denuded by years of felling and the lack of adequate fresh water. In 1963 and 1973 Sundarbans were allowed to clear reserve forests for  agriculture and settle in areas like Jharkhali and Herobhanga islands when refugees from Bangladesh came to India .
  

In 1973, management of a large portion of the Indian Sundarbans was passed on to Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, which was established in 1973 under "Project Tiger. In 1977, it declared Sundarbans a Wildlife Sanctuary and elevated parts of it to the status of a National Park on 4th May 1984. UNESCO inscribed the Indian Sundarbans on the World Heritage List in 1987 and the entire Indian Sundarbans area was recognized by UNESCO as a Global Biosphere Reserve in 2001.

ROYEL BENGAL TIGER

Bengal Tiger (bagh) one of the largest living cats on earth, belongs to family Felidae, order Carnivora. The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is recognized as the national animal of Bangladesh and is renowned as the Royal Bengal Tiger. Its body is rich yellow to reddish ochre in colour with vertically arranged black stripes, more pronounced towards the rump and thighs; its underparts are whitish. Its cubs are born with stripes. The yellow tail has a series of black rings and ends up with a black tip. The backside of the ears is black and has a clearly visible white spot. The animal has round pupils, retractile claws, head-body length 140-280 cm, and a tail measuring 60-110 cm. Its height at its shoulder is 95-110 cm; males weigh 180-280 kg and females 115-185 kg; the female is smaller. The heaviest tiger that has been recorded in the Guinness Book of Records at 465 kg is the Amur (Siberian) Tiger (Panthera tigris attaica). Siberian tigers are also generally the heaviest, with adult males often weighing over 272 kg and male Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae) weigh only about 113 kg. Tigers are mainly nocturnal, and normally solitary except when breeding. They prey on medium to large mammals such as deer, wild pigs and porcupines. They can bring down animals twice their size. Prey species determine how many tigers can survive in a given area. An agile animal, it swims well, and patrols its territory by marking it with droppings and other signs. Tigers are monogamous and usually give birth to 2-5 cubs after a gestation period of about 14-15 weeks; the majority of the cubs are born between February and May and nursed by their mothers for 5-6 months. The young cubs stay with their mother for a year or more. A female becomes sexually mature in 3 years and a male in 4 years. An extremely adaptable animal, P. tigris lives in a variety of habitats, from tropical forests to mangrove swamps to deciduous woodlands. Tigers can also be found in a wide range of climates and range from the jungles of the subcontinent to the snows of the Russian Far East. In Bangladesh tigers were once found in every forest, but are now confined to the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, and are treated as a critically endangered species. Of the eight subspecies of tigers five still survive: the Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) lives in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Western Myanmar and Nepal; the Amur (Siberian) Tiger (P. t. attaica) in Siberia, Manchuria and Northeast China; the south China (Amoy) Tiger (P. t. ameyensis) in China; the Sumatran Tiger (P. t. sumatrae) in Sumatra; and the Indo-Chinese Tiger (P. t. corbetti) in Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Eastern Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Three subspecies of tigers the Javan Tiger (P. t. sondaica), the Bali Tiger (P. t. balica), and the Caspian (Turan/Hyrcanian) Tiger (P. t. virgata) have become extinct in the last 50 years. Today it is estimated that fewer than 7,000 tigers survive in the wild in the following countries: Bangladesh (300-362), Bhutan (67-81), China (110-140), India (2,500-3,750), Myanmar (230-465), Nepal (93-97), Russia (330-337), Vietnam (200), Cambodia (150-300), Laos (?), North Korea (c 10), Thailand (250-501), Malaysia (491-510), and Indonesia (400-500).

 

In Bangladesh habitat loss, loss of prey, poaching for skin and other body parts, and killing by man are the major threats to tigers so day by dayt Tiger has been deceasing in The Royal Bengal Tiger has been included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix 1, and in the 3rd Schedule of the Bangladesh (Wildlife) (Preservation) (Amendment) Act, 1974.

Tiger Reserve: 

Project Tiger was implemented in 1973 and later the Sundarban Tiger Reserve was demarcated over 2,585-sq. km. The core area of 1,330 sq.km has been declared a National park and has been chosen as a world heritage site. The 1980 census put the population of tiger in this reserve close to 400. The reserve has a tiger population of 287 (in 1984 census). The only mangrove species, the tiger here has adapted well to its habitat.

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SUNDARBAN

Geographical data of Sundarban
Latitude: 25.7667
Longitude: 88.7167
Average Height: 34

Sundarbans Mangrove forest is the largest in the world, and covers areas of India and Bangladesh for more than 80 kilometers in forming Sundarbans National Park, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.

A third of this area is covered by water and marshes, as well Sundarbans since 1966 has been considered a sanctuary for wildlife because it is estimated that there live about 400 Royal Bengal Tigers and more than 30,000 deer in this area.

The forest lies at the feet of the Ganges and is spread across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, forming the seaward fringe of the delta. The seasonally-flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie inland from the mangrove forests. The forest covers 10,000 km2 of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh. It became inscribed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997, but while the Bangladeshi and Indian portions constitute the same continuous ecotope, these are separately listed in the UNESCO world heritage list as the Sundarbans and Sundarbans National Park, respectively. The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests. The area is known for the eponymous Royal Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris), as well as numerous fauna including species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes. It is estimated that there are now 500[citation needed] Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area. Sundarbans was designated a Ramsar site on May 21, 1992. The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use for centuries, and the ecoregion has been mostly converted to intensive agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining. The remaining forests, together with the Sundarbans mangroves, are important habitat for the endangered tiger. Additionally, the Sundarbans serves a crucial function as a protective flood barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around Kolkata (Calcutta) against the result of cyclone activity.

Sundarbans is home to many different species of birds, mammals, insects, reptiles and fish. It is estimated that there may be found more than 120 species of fish and over 260 species of birds and more than fifty species of reptiles and eight amphibians. Many tourists go there to see the Bengal tigers, saltwater crocodiles, leopards and snakes cobra.

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