The world's largest delta sundarban

THE RIVERINE SYSTEM

Lower Bengal is known as the Land of Rivers and Rivulets characterised by a labyrinthine maze of water bodies-rivers, rivulets and creeks.

 The Indian Sunderban tour is known as the Hooghly (lower part of the river Ganges)–Matla estuary. Here, the freshwater of the rivers mingles with the sea water as the latter enters hundreds of creeks and channels during high tide. The rivers swell and subside with water levels rising and falling as much as 15 feet. There are two tides and two ebbs every day. A working formula is used by local people of Sunderban National Park  for calculating the tide. On the full moon or new moon if the high tide is at 5.00 a.m. and 5.00 p.m., the next day it will be 45 minutes before, i.e. at 4.15 a.m. and 4.15 p.m. After 6 hrs of high tide, the low or ebb tide follows.

According to their water flow in the various creeks and channels are given different names. Some channels in the Sundarbans National Park, which have tidal flow, end blindly, finding no possible outlet, after traversing some distance. They form swampy areas called Morani, whereas in some creeks which have connection with tidal rivers at both ends, water flows from both sides even at low or high tide. These creeks are commonly called Bharani. Again, some creeks with an east-west direction of water flow which show a great rise of water level or no sign of receding water level even during ebb tide, are called Duania.

While our sundarban tour we found that the rivers of the Indian Sunderbans carry much less silt and sweet water in comparison to those of the Bangladesh Sunderbans. Consequently, they draw more sea water inside. More-over, due to bulk drainage of water from the Hooghly river system to the Padma River in Bangladesh, the fresh-water rivers like Matla and Bidyadhari do not get much freshwater and have become almost tidal rivers. Due to this influx of sea water in the riverine terrain area of Sundarbans National Park, the rivers of the Indian Sunderbans are more like outstretched arms of the sea rather than freshwater rivers. Salinity is intense and it has a threatening impact on the mangrove community. Salinity of the Indian Sunderbans varies from as low as eight parts per thousand to as high as 20 parts per thousand.

The major rivers of the Indian Sunderban Travel destination are:

Matla: Three rivers viz. Bidyadhari, Khuratya and Rampura Khal join near Canning and flow as the wide-mouthed Matla into the Bay of Bengal.

Bidyadhari: This is a branch of the river Hooghly. In bygone days it was highly navigable, but now it acts as a dump for sewerage and an outlet for excess rain water for the city of Kolkata.