In and around our Island - Bali9

The glow of night

Black-headed oriole






















Black-winged Cuckooshrike











Black-capped Kingfisher

Bali9 - The village

The Ravages of Cyclone Aila that ripped through Bengal casuing great damage















No concrete structures were to be seen on this island. it is all mud & thatched houses - what a pleasant change from our concret jungles!










Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker














The innocence of childhood!

More from Bali9

The Common Iora gave some good poses
















Enough of posing! it was time to take off!!!




















Another view of the island















Common Kingfisher waiting for brunch near a small wetpatch

Our Resort at Bali 9 Island

A beautiful resort run by Help Tourism, Sunderbans Jungle Resort is situated right within the sunderbans on Bali 9. It had the natural ambience of the charming island. With comfortable cottages (picture above) to provide the city slicker with the luxury of home

The dining area & a small bamboo bridge over a swamp connects the dining area to the cottages.

 

Around our resort

another view of the bamboo bridge and with the debate about introducing Bt brinjal in our country here is a picture of the humble brinjal plant and its flowers

Information and Acknowledgements

Sunderbans can be reached by 3 1/2 hour drive from Calcutta that takes you through some of the most beautiful Scenery you can imagine. You alight at a small shantytown called Gaokhali to catch the ferry that will be your day-time home for the rest of your trip. that takes you to Bali9 Island in 1 hr 10 mins. For a map of Sunderbans visit http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunderbans_map.png

For a trip extraordinaire, a big thank you to

1. Bombay Natural History Society & to the enthusiastic leaders - Birdman Nikhil Bhopale &  the expert Botanist Dr. Swapna Prabhu for organising the trip &  sighting the Birdlife & the beautiful flora of the region. See their website www.bnhs.org
2. Help Tourism & especially Mr. Apurva for making excellent arrangements including the very comfortable M.V. Sundari that ferried us around. It is appreciable & noteworthy that this organisation is an NGO that promotes sustainable toursim that benefits local communities in Eastern & North Eastern India. they have won the responsible toursim award in 2009 by wildasia.org. A venture worth encouraging. Their website www.helptourism.com
3. Shambhuda & his dedicated team at Sunderbans Jungle Camp for the excellent service.  
4. My fellow travellers & especially my friend & rook-mate, Anila Mistry
5. Of course all the birds & animals that made their timely but fleeting appearance!