Gosaba

Gosaba (Bengali: গোসাবা) is a village in the Canning subdivision of South 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the last inhabited area before the deep forests of the Sundarbans start. It has a police station, a community development block, and an assembly constituency. The area symbolises man’s struggle against nature and predators.
Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Administration
5 Politics
6 Economy
6.1 Honey collection
6.2 Tourism
6.3 Power
7 Education
8 Health
9 References
[edit]History

Sir Daniel Mackinnon Hamilton, a Scotsman, had travelled to Kolkata to work for MacKinnon & McKenzie, a company with which he had family connections. The company sold tickets for the P&O shipping line, then one of the largest in the world. Hamilton became head of the company and master of an immense fortune, one of the richest men in British India. Another man may have taken his money and gone away but Hamilton set his eyes on the deltaic islands in south Bengal. In 1903, he bought 10,000 acres (40 km2) of the tide country from the government – it included such islands as Gosaba, Rangabelia, and Satjelia. His efforts at developing these places brought in other people into these islands. They were people who dared not only to struggle against nature but also the predators that lived there – tigers, crocodiles, sharks and lizards. They killed so many people that Hamilton gave rewards to people who killed them.[1]
[edit]Geography

Gosaba is located at 22.16°N 88.80°E[2]. It has an average elevation of 4 metres (13 feet). Gosaba is one of the main deltaic islands in the Sundarban region, bounded by the Matala and Zilli rivers/ creeks. It is the last inhabited area before the deep forests start. Kolkata to Sonakhali (opposite Basanti) is 100 km, it takes about three hours by road. Sonakhali to Gosaba is about 1½ hours by powered boat.[3] Sundarbans are home to some 270 man-eating tigers. Sixteen of them have entered the villages of Gosaba between 2001 and 2004.[4]
[edit]Demographics

In the 2001 census, Gosaba community development block had a population of 222,764 out of which 113,827 were males and 108,937 were females. The entire population is classified as rural.[5]
[edit]Administration

Gosaba is an intermediate panchayat (local self-government) under South 24 Parganas district. Village panchayats under it are – Amtali, Bali I and II, Bipradaspur, Chhota Mollakhali, Gosaba, Kachukhali, Kumirmari, Lahiripur, Pathankhali, Radhanagar-Taranagar, Rangabelia, Satjelia and Sambhunagar.[6]
[edit]Politics

In the 2006 assembly elections, Chittaranjan Mandal of RSP won the Gosaba (SC) seat defeating his nearest rival Jayanta Naskar of AITC. Ganesh Mondal of RSP won the seat from 1977 to 2001, defeating Sujit Pramanick of AITC/ INC in 2001 and 1996, Jitendranath Gayen of INC in 1991, Pramila Biswas of INC in 1987, Sandhyakar Mondal of INC in 1982 and Paresh Baidya of INC in 1977.[7]
Gosaba assembly constituency is part of Joynagar (Lok Sabha constituency).[8]
[edit]Economy

The Hungry Tide
The destitution of the tide country was such as to remind them of the terrible famine that had devastated Bengal in 1942, except that… hunger and catastrophe were a way of life… the land had still not been wholly leached of its salt. The soil bore poor crops and could not be farmed all year round. Most families subsisted on a single daily meal. Despite all the labour that had been invested in the embankments, there were still periodic breaches because of floods and storms: each such inundation rendered the land infertile for several years at a time… Hunger drove them to hunting and fishing and the results were often disastrous. Many died of drowning, and many more were picked off by crocodiles and estuarine sharks. Nor did the mangroves offer much of immediate value to human beings – yet thousand risked death in order to collect meagre quantities of honey, wax, firewood and the sour fruit of kewra trees. No day seemed to pass without news about someone being killed by a tiger, a snake or a crocodile.[9]
Amitav Ghosh
[edit]Honey collection
Around 20,000 kg of honey is collected every year from forests of Sundarbans. Mostly people from the Kultali, Joynagar, Basanti, Gosaba and Canning are honey collectors. The number of honey collectors has dwindled from around 1,500 a few years back to around 700 in 2007. From 1985 through 2004, about 75 honey collectors were killed by tigers in the forests. Now all honey collectors are insured for Rs. 50,000. The forest department has also intensified vigilance during the honey collection period. The range officers and guards are on full alert. No deaths have been reported since 2004.[10]
[edit]Tourism
The main tourist centre in the region is Sajnekhali in the heart of the Sundarbans tiger reserve, where the state tourist department has a lodge with basic amenities. Sajnekhali is about 1½ hours by boat from Gosaba. Most tourist boats go past Gosaba. Some tourists travel to Gosaba on their way to Pakhiralay (the home of the birds). Foreigners need a special permit to enter Sunderbans, which is issued in Kolkata by the Department of Tourism, Government of West Bengal.[3] Help Tourism's small Jungle Camp is at Bali island, outside the tiger reserve. Sunderban Tiger Camp at Dayapur, Gosaba has 14 rooms.[11]
[edit]Power
Villages in the deltaic region of Sundarbans do not have access to conventional forms of energy. A 1x500 kW biomass based power plant was installed at Gosaba island, in June, 1997 and has been running successfully, serving about 650 consumers through a network of distribution lines. The power plant is being run on a commercial basis by the Gosaba Rural Energy Cooperative. A 500 kW gasifier based power plant was commissioned in the remote island of Chhotomollakhali in June, 2001.[12]
Plans are afoot to set up a 3.6 MW power plant in Durgaduani creek utilising tidal water. The Durgaduani creek is between the rivers Bidyadhari and Gomdi Khal. It is about 8.5 km long and has an average width of 145 metres. Tidal water will be stored and then let out to generate electricity using four turbines. There will be two gates at either end at Gosaba and Sonagaon to form a low head.[13]
[edit]Education

Educational institutions in Gosaba - Sundarban Hazi Dasarat College (Pathankhali), Gosaba Rural Reconstruction (Government sponsored) Institution, Rangabelia High School, Sambhunagar High School, Bipradaspur High School (Manmathanagar), Mongol Chandra Vidyapith (Chotomollakhali),Satjelia Natavar Vidyayatan(satjelia).[14]
[edit]Health

Although in South 24 Parganas district groundwater is affected by arsenic contamination, in Gosaba all the tubewells analyzed were arsenic safe (below 10 µg/L). The probable reason may be that being a coastal area most of the tubewells draw water from less contaminated deep aquifers.[15]
World Wildlife Fund has organized workshops on the treatment of snakebite victims in Gosaba block with the local quacks, ojhas and gunins, people who attend the local patients, to enhance the scientific knowledge of such people.[16]
Four launches with doctors carrying medicines, sophisticated portable X-ray and echo-cardiograph machines, provided by the French author Dominique Lapierre move along the waterways of the Sundarbans to its furthest corners. Residents of such places as Sandeshkhali, Basanti, Gosaba and Kultali have felicitated him when he came in 2004.[17]