The Hindu Business Line : Capturing the pristine beauty of Sunderbans

It seems to be the season of Coffee Table books in Bengal. After birds, it is now the turn of Royal Bengal Tigers at its natural habitat in the Sunderbans forests of South East Bengal to be featured in a book of photographs.

Sunderbans houses the world's largest mangrove forests and is home of the legendary Royal Bengal Tigers, which bring visitors from far and wide to the riverine delta.

After a bureaucrat, it is now a Bengal-based leather businessman, a second generation Tamil, Mr S. Sampath Kumar, former chairman of Council for Leather Exports, who has captured the pristine beauty of Sunderbans in his camera. Mr Kumar, who is also a member of the Royal Photographic Society of London, has to his credit a book on the beauty of Kolkata Raj Bhavan, titled Raj Bhavan revisited, released in 2004 by the then Governor Mr Viren Shah.

Situated between India and Bangladesh, Sunderbans, occupying 26,000 sq km of littoral mangroves forests, is today designated as a World Network of International Biosphere Reserves by UNESCO. (The Indian side has some 10,000 sq km). Some 4 million people live in this delta region, where tides rise up to 6 m height to inundate the villages twice a day.

Presenting his book at the historic Town Hall building in Kolkata on Tuesday, Mr Kumar said the profits raised from the sale of the book (priced at Rs 1,250) titled Silhouettes of Sunderbans, will be utilised through NGOs for the welfare of needy children in the Sunderbans villages.

According to him, the Sunderbans delta covered by mangrove forests, acts as protective shield for the entire region from Tsunami like occurrences, and has a very delicate eco system. The land survey of the region was done by the British way back in 1761.

Mr Kumar said he is inspired by the medical ambulances created in the area by Dominic Lapierre, the French author who portrayed Kolkata as a `City of Joy'. A photographic exhibition on the same subject was also thrown open for public viewing at the Town Hall.

Releasing the book, Mr Manabendra Mukherjee, the State Minister for Tourism and Cottage and Small Scale Industries, said Sunderbans, the biggest tiger reserve in the world, is intrinsically linked with the culture of Bengal. He said the State Government has appointed a global consultant to work on a Sunderbans tourism project, under the World Tourism Organisation, keeping in mind the ecological asset now declared as a world heritage site.

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