Sunderbans, the domains of Royal Bengal. formerly Sunderbunds, vast tract of forest and saltwater swamp forming the lower part of the Ganges Delta, extending about 160 miles (260 km) along the Bay of Bengal from the Hooghly River Estuary to the Meghna River Estuary in Bangladesh. The Sunderbans are a part of the world's largest delta formed by the rivers Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna. The whole tract reaches inland for 60-80 miles (100-130 km). Sunderban covers an area of 4262 sq. kms in India. The Sunderban Tiger Project was started in 1974 and has an area of 2585 sq. kms. The core area is 1330 sq. kms and is a national forest and UNESCO world heritage site. The Sundarbans Tiger Reserve, created in 1973, was the part of the then 24-Pargans Division. Subsequently the area comprising of the present tiger reserve was constituted as Reserve Forest in 1978. The total area of the Sunderbans is 9630 sq. km. out of which 4264 sq. km. bears mangrove forest. The area of the Reserve is 2585 sq. km. covering land area of 1600 sq. km. and water body over 985 sq. km. Within this area 1330.12 sq. km. is designated as core area, which was subsequently declared as Sundarban National Park in 1984. An area of 124.40 sq. km. within the core area is preserved as primitive zone to act as gene pool. Sunderbans is the largest wild tiger reserve in the world. Total number of Tiger is around 270 on 1997 census.. .

Directions: Sunderbans is accessible only by revering waterways. From Calcutta there are suburban train to Canning (64 km) and buses to Namkhana (105 km), Raidighi (76 km), Sonakhali (100 km) and Najat (92 km) from where Motor launch services are available for Sunderbans...