Tourism

A trip to Sunderbans is all about traveling all through the day through large and small rivulets, waiting for the low tide when the animal sighting chances are higher and admiring high tide when trees and land get covered with water.
However if you are willing to invest time then please do not go during the peak tourist season for our people are barbarians who have no idea how to behave themselves. Let me give you an example. Sunderbans in spite of having 278 tigers (2004 census) has very low sighting simply because tourists move on boats in the river while the tiger resides in the thick jungles where entry is prohibited, risky and very very dense. It is for this reason that watchtowers have been created in the sanctuary, and tracts of jungle cleared and fresh water sources created (even though the river water is salty, the RBT drinks it and in fact even eats fishes and crabs) so that tourists can watch if any animal crosses those areas. The least that people can do is sit quietly, wait and watch. However our tourists bred on a daily dose of instant gratification, mindless soaps misbehave just as they do in the zoos. They scream, shout, hoot, talk incessantly among each other (sometimes even on the phone- Yes, BSNL covers most of Sunderbans) and sometimes even sing. It took a lot of self restraint to not slap a few of them but just in sharp whispers to tell them to shut up or get lost. I sometimes wonder when, if ever will we learn to behave ourselves as a race.