Upamanyu Das

Film Editor / Designer
Right Arrow Photography

Sunderban Trip 2016

, photography, wildlife, sunderban

Green Bee Eater Crocodile Spotted Deer Black Capped Kingfisher Collared Kingfisher Jungle Cat Common Redshank Great Egret Common Kingfisher Grey Headed Lapwing Crested Serpent Eagle Spotted Deer Brahminy Kite Red Junglefowl Spotted Deer (Fawn) Tiger Pugmarks Brown Winged Kingfisher Little Egret Black Capped Kingfisher - Takeoff Larger Crocodile Lesser Whistling Duck Brown Winged Kingfisher - In flight Cormorant Pied Kingfisher Lesser Whistling Duck Couple

In the month of December, last year, I had the unique opportunity to visit the Mangroves of Sunderban Tiger Reserve. I was accompanied by my brother on the trip, and he is the one who took most of the photographs. The trip was conceived by the Kolkata Bloggers & was handled by GoingWild. Under the skilled guidance of Soumyajit Nandy & Tamanud Mitra, we were able to spot a number of Kingfisher species, species of Eagle & Kite and many number of other animals, though we weren’t lucky enough to spot a Bengal Tiger.

The complete trip was of 3 nights & 4 days and the itinerary was handled by GoingWild. We started our journey in the early hours of 29th December 2016. Took the Canning route and reached Godkhali by 11AM. Then began our journey on the boat name M.B. Floatel Banzara.

From 11AM, we roamed around in the backwaters of Sunderbans till 4PM. Since it the rule of all forests not to remain inside after 4PM. The breakfast, lunch, evening snacks & dinner were served on the boat. The cook, Manna da, had an excellent hand at cooking and prepared for us some delicacies of rural Bengal. This day, we spotted the rare Jungle Cat.

The following day, we left early at 6AM, and this was the day we spotted many more birds and animals. Traveling inside the jungle was a strange and calm feeling at the same time. The vastness of the jungle and the mysteries it holds never seemed to amaze me from time to time. Along with the Black Capped, Collared & Common we also spotted a few Brown Winged Kingfishers as well. Again on this day, the food is served with care.

Our team contained 3 experienced and 2 non experienced photographers, along with our very experienced guides. Following are some photographs of our team.

Photographers
Photographers

Along with some good jungle photographs, we also tried our hand at creating a star trail. Though the result was not quite acceptable, but still putting on the image.

Star Trail at Sunderban
Star Trail at Sunderban

We ended our trip wih a final team groupfie. Though it was a small trip, the experience was powerful enough to ingite a love for wildlife in me. I’ve already booked a trip to Bandhavgarh with GoingWild in May 2017. Hope I sight some tigers there.

Team
final Groupfie

Cheers!