[Reader-list] Sunderban Diaries

[Inder Salim]

http://pics.livejournal.com/indersalim/pic/000h54fd/

yes, the tiger would disappear

and then ..

sad



On Mon, Aug 17, 2009 at 4:50 PM, Jeebesh<jeebesh at sarai.net> wrote:
> dear All,
>
> I am posting a text by a 10 years old. He is a friend's son. I liked
> this dairy. The weird thing is that all that he sees and shares is
> totally under threat. Maybe 20 to 25 years down the line the tiger
> would have disappeared and water polo may not be a joke anymore.
>
> Sometimes the simple innocence can make us wonder what we are bring
> into our world.
>
> love
> jeebes
>
> Sunderban Diaries
>
>  25th May, 2008: Came to the Sunderbans today. At Goshaba Ghat, we
> took a launch that took us to the resort where we were staying. We
> were staying in a hut thatched with straw. We had lunch, fish curry
> and rice (I hate fish but my father said we must eat what we were
> given) and took another launch again to see a river. I saw an osprey
> feasting on a snake. But sadly there were no crocodiles to be seen. I
> stayed on the launch till 5 p.m. Then returned to the resort, had
> dinner and went off to sleep.
>
>  26th May: I woke up in the morning at 6. We carried our breakfast to
> the launch. I saw people fishing for little tiger prawns. There were
> no crocodiles because it was too hot for them. Our guide told us that
> in winter, the crocodiles came and sat on the banks in the sunlight.
> Suddenly, a fin came out of the water. My father shouted, ‘Look a
> Gangetic Dolphin.’ I was so excited that I almost fell into the water.
> At six, we returned to the resort. We saw tiger palms where tigers
> hide in the daytime. The trees have similar colours as the tiger skin
> and they camouflage the animals. But alas, no tiger!
>
>  27th May: Today we decided to take the launch right into the
> interiors of Sundarbans. There I saw the famous mangroves, the sundari
> trees that give Sunderban its name. Mangroves are trees that breathe
> with their roots, which go underground but come up again. They just
> look like steel spikes except that they don’t come out of concrete but
> mud! Some trees were standing in the middle of the water. I had
> already seen the picture of a delta in a map but now for the first
> time, I saw one in real life.
>
> Later, on a forest reserve base camp I saw a green tree snake…hissss!
> We also saw some deer swimming and crossing the river. I saw a
> crocodile at last! It was at least ten feet long and it was half
> hidden in the water. It had big yellow eyes with slits. This place is
> called Sudhanyakhali. Behind an embankment, some boys were playing
> football. My father said when the embankments break, they will be
> playing water polo.
>
> I remembered watching the water as our launch moved: it was covered
> with oil and grease left behind by passing launches like ours. The
> water was greenish brown and during low tide the silt caked our feet.
>
>
>
> Ritwik Saha
>
> Std VI, Springdales School, Pusa Road, Delhi.
>
> Age: 10 years 7 months.
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