Tide

The Sunderbans are a UNESCO World Heritage site and the largest mangrove forest and one of the largest estuarine deltas of the world. A little over half of it lies in Bangladesh and the rest in the South 24 parganas of West Bengal. Needless to say it is uniquely beautiful and one of the most different landscapes you can ever see. It’s a picture of about a hundred plus islands with rivers snaking through them. The most unique feature and what gives it its pseudonym of ‘Tide Country’ and the famous Amitav Ghosh book ‘The Hungry Tide’ is the havoc that the tides play in the life of this place. On an average the water level difference between high tide and ebb tide is over 10 feet. During this amazing daily natural event land masses are created and submerged, trees get half submerged in water and roots grow upwards instead of down for breathing creating what we call mangrove forests. You witness all of this in front of you as you go along the river banks on your boat, the movement of which is also governed by the tide.