sundarbans national park in india: protecting the...

ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 2010 | 5THE GLOBAL EDITION OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.

W hen one finally sees a Bengal tigerin the wild, the most surprisingthing is not its tremendous size or

glowing golden eyes, but rather how well itblends into the Indian underbrush. No won-der its prey doesn’t have a chance — andneither would a human on foot. Fortunatelyfor tourists, the best and often the only wayto explore India’s sprawling Sundarbans Na-tional Park is by boat, cruising the region’s in-numerable waterways and scanning theshoreline with binoculars.

The secluded Sundarbans is one of In-dia’s least-known yet most rewarding naturereserves, and not just because of the tigers.The park’s 54 islands are part of the world’slargest estuarine mangrove forest, an emer-ald-green labyrinth that long ago formed atthe spot where rivers flow into the Bay ofBengal. In addition to a large tiger popula-tion, the reserve harbors other Indian spe-cies, including saltwater crocodiles, king co-bras, chital deer, river dolphins and severalhundred different types of bird.

The park, located a few hours southeastof Calcutta, is best visited during the cooler,drier winter months (December to February).Visitors stay at wildlife lodges in the bio-sphere buffer zone around the park. Thelodges offer guided visits to nearby villagesto learn about how the local Bengalis havecoexisted with the tigers and other wildlifefor thousands of years. They can also ar-range guided boat trips into the heart of thepark. Alternatively, visitors can book pas-sage aboard live-aboard boats like the M.V.Paramhamsa, which explore the delta re-gion on multi-day trips from Calcutta. Cruisepassengers in the Sundarbans spend theirdays visiting wildlife projects and local fish-ing villages, transferring to smaller boats for

About 80 years ago, a Swissmerchant traveling in Indiabefriended some English poloplayers, who asked him if it wouldbe possible to create a wristwatchthey could wear during matcheswithout risking damage to it.When the merchant returned toSwitzerland, he went to his friend,Jacques-David LeCoultre, head ofthe watchmaking company Jaeger-LeCoultre. They started working ona way to protect the watch’scrystal, and the Reverso was born.Its swivel-case design allowedplayers to turn the dial around, sothat the watch’s steel backing, notits delicate glass, was exposed.Introduced in 1931, the Reversowas an immediate success withboth polo enthusiasts and all thoseseeking a special timepiece. Eversince then, the Reverso hasmaintained its position as one ofJaeger-LeCoultre’s flagshipproducts. In 2006, for theReverso’s 75th anniversary,Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced theReverso Squadra, a sporty,updated model of the original, nowconsidered a classic. Last year’sGrande Reverso, the latest in theline, offers a new movement andmore high-frequency functions foreven greater precision. It comes intwo versions: the Grande Reverso986 Duodate, with two time zones,and the Grande Reverso 976. J.J.

Millions of visitors to the 900World Heritage sites have madetourism management an importantissue, but site personnel and localcommunity members sometimeslack experience in managing thetourist flow. The World HeritageTourism Program develops policies,processes and practical manualsfor site directors and statesignatories to the World HeritageConvention on how to managetourism on World Heritageproperties, advising them on howto retain World Heritage values andfight threats. The programcooperates with Unesco partners,such as its advisory bodies, andworks with the tourism industry tomaximize tourism’s benefits andminimize its adverse effects onWorld Heritage sites.Visit http://whc.unesco.org J.J.

SPOTLIGHT | Botanical treasure house

Sundarbans National Park in India: Protecting the mangroves

EXPLORING | A secluded sanctuary

From Bengal tigers to cruises through the waterways

Reverso: Origins of a legend

Tourism program

Bengal tigers are the park’s major tourist draw.

Visit the Tides of Time Web site for videos,interviews and more information on World Heritagemarine sites: whc.unesco.org/tidesoftime/

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C alled a ‘‘botanical treasure house’’and known to every Indian school-child, the rich world that is the

Sundarbans covers 10,000 square kilome-ters (3,900 square miles) of land and water— nearly 6,000 in India and the rest in Ban-gladesh. It is part of the planet’s largestdelta (80,000 square kilometers), formedby three rivers: the Ganges, theBrahmaputra and the Meghna, which con-verge on the Bay of Bengal. The flat land-scape is crisscrossed by a mesh of inter-connecting waterways, some more than amile wide and opening to the sea. Thismakes it a home for aquatic mammals suchas dolphins, porpoises and terrapins, wholive alongside many waterbirds, includingkingfishers, osprey, terns and owls. Thearea is particularly important for storks andother waders.

First made a national park in 1984, In-dia’s Sundarbans National Park was in-scribed on the World Heritage List in 1987.Inside the park are three wildlife sanctuariesdating from 1977. These sites, which protectthreatened reptiles like crocodiles and py-thons, were restructured as a Unesco Bio-sphere Reserve in 2001 and grouped to-gether, as they all share what is theSundarbans’ most important feature: itsmangrove ecosystem. These trees drivetheir thick roots deep into the mud along thecoastlines in the tropics and subtropics.They are unique in that they can grow in salt-

water, providing habitat for fish and servingas nurseries for many invertebrate marinespecies. Mangrove ecosystems providehabitat for nearly all forms of life, aquaticand terrestrial, making them a particularly vi-tal element in the Sundarbans.

Occupying most of the delta, the Sundar-bans is by far the largest mangrove forest inthe world. The Evergladesin Florida, with lessthan 100,000 hectares(247,000 acres), come adistant second. TheSundarbans is home tomore than 40 species of mangrove, whichmakes it of particular interest to botanists.

Today, these mangrove forests arethreatened, first of all by climate change.Should global warming alter the sea level,these mangrove forests would face seriousconsequences. About the Sundarbans parkon the Bangladeshi side, Unesco ProgramSpecialist Marc Patry says: ‘‘Any markedrise would drown out the tightly circum-scribed protected area in which the man-groves are located.’’ One estimate says thattwo-thirds of the Sundarbans, which sits atsea level, would vanish following a 45-centi-meter (18-inch) sea-level rise.

The mangroves are also threatened bypeople. Though fish is the dietary staple ofthe local Bengali farmers, they are also at-tracted by the riches of the mangrove forest;numerous cases of woodcutting, particu-

larly for firewood, occur each year. This re-gion of India, southwest of Calcutta, is oneof the world’s most densely populated, andthe local communities use every square me-ter of the land and live in a constant searchfor resources. World Heritage status has fa-cilitated the work of the Indian authoritieswho protect the Sundarbans, helping them

make the case amongtheir own people and allow-ing them to inaugurate, forexample, special mobilepatrol squads and a net-work of watchtowers, and

even undercover informers, to try and stopdestruction of the forest. Nevertheless, thethreat remains.

The Sundarbans is also the only man-grove ecosystem inhabited by tigers.Sundarbans National Park is a 133,000-hectare core area within a 250,000-hectaretiger reserve, which, until recently, has beenspacious enough to maintain India’s largestpopulation of threatened Bengal tigers. Noother protected area on earth containsmore than 100 of these felines. But as theforest shrinks under clandestine logging, thetigers are forced to roam elsewhere. Thisbrings them in contact with people, with theresult that an average of 45 humans arekilled yearly by the animals.

Finally, the disappearance of the man-groves would remove a crucial line of de-fense against monsoons. Without the trees,

the low-lying surrounding land would be leftopen to the ruinous effects of the hurricane-force winds that regularly lash the region.

Ten percent of the world’s tropical hur-ricanes occur in the Bengal basin, accordingto the 1987 International Union for Conser-vation of Nature report on the Sundarbansnomination for World Heritage. ‘‘Further de-struction of the mangroves would diminishtheir critical role as natural buffers againstcyclones,’’ the report concluded. ‘‘Any harmto the mangrove forests will leave India andBangladesh vulnerable to the effects of dis-turbances in the Bay of Bengal.’’

Cyclone Sidr, which pummeled Sundar-bans in 2007, illustrates the havoc cyclonescan cause, but also shows what Unesco cando to help. Unesco’s Patry was in theSundarbans on the Bangladeshi side whenthe cyclone hit. ‘‘It came ripping through withhigh-category winds, causing tremendousdamage to the ecosystem, but also to thepark infrastructure,’’ he says. ‘‘I was

amazed at the total destruction of theforest. There was not one leaf left on any ofthe trees. In the tropics, this is very rare.’’

The Sundarbans’ employees live in re-mote field stations whose accommoda-tions, boats, jetties and other amenitieswere all wiped out by Sidr. Unesco respond-ed with an onsite mission that evaluated theextent of the devastation and helped thesite’s management re-establish its pres-ence in the field. For the damage to the parkon the Bangladeshi side, Unesco allocated$75,000 — augmented by another$30,000 raised through a direct appealcampaign — used to repair the field sta-tions deemed most strategic in assuring thepresence of park rangers in Sundarbans’ re-motest areas. Says Patry: ‘‘The World Herit-age Centre is there at all times to help as-sess the damage and restore any of the lostinfrastructure. Here we were able to help thecountry put together and finance a plan torebuild what was lost.’’ J.J.

The shrinking forestforces Bengal tigersinto populated areas

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Sundarbans National Park, aUnesco World Heritage site inIndia, is home to the Bengaltiger and the world’s largestmangrove forest, both ofwhich are threatened

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Jaeger-LeCoultre online auction from March 18In March, Jaeger-LeCoultre presents its second online auction to benefitUnesco’s World Heritage Centre. This year, the manufacture offers an iconicand unique timepiece: one of the two vintage 1958 Geophysic Chronometerstested by the professional climber Stephane Schaffter and his team duringtheir recent Geophysic Expedition to the Himalayas. Proceeds from theauction will benefit Sundarbans National Park, a World Heritage marine sitein India. The auction, a great calling for collectors, starts on March 18 atnoon Central European Time on http://auction.jaeger-lecoultre.com.

journeys up narrow mangrove creeks andcalling on the 300-year-old Hindu temple onNetidhopani Island. There are also shortshore excursions and nature walks, but giv-en the difficult terrain, a boat is the best wayto view nature in the Sundarbans.

While a cruise through the park topsevery visitor’s list, there are plenty of otherwildlife attractions in the surrounding bufferzone, most of them also reached by boat.Sajnekhali Island is home to a renownedbird sanctuary and a mangrove interpreta-tion center. Southeast of the park is theBhagatpur Crocodile Project. The forest ser-vice watch-towers at Dobanke and Sudhan-yakhali are good for spotting animals.

Despite all the other animals and naturalattractions in the delta, tigers remain themajor draw. ‘‘The Sundarbans are reckonedto contain the greatest amount of tigers leftin India,’’ says Julian Matthews of Travel Op-erators for Tigers, a nonprofit dedicated to

responsible and sustainable wildlife tour-ism. Sundarbans tigers are also consideredIndia’s most dangerous. In recent times, theforest service has greatly reduced the threatof predation on humans, but the legend ofthe Bengal tigers continues. In ‘‘The Man-Eating Tigers of the Sundarbans,’’ Sy Mont-gomery writes: ‘‘So much about this unusualforest and its fierce tigers remains mysteri-ous. Do these tigers really have powers thatother tigers don’t?’’ J.Y.

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