New Student Photo Series 2010 Entry #20 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

New Student Photo Series 2010 â€" Entry #20 COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog New students click here for information on how to submit your own photos for posting on the blog. Todays photos were submitted by Monoswita Saha, an Masters is Public Administration student. __________________ The Sunderbans December 2007 I have always wanted to visit the Sunderbans and finally got my chance during my senior year as an undergraduate when I was researching sustainable living initiatives for my thesis.   The Sunderbans are an otherworldly experience, at once dangerously enticing, beautiful and delicate, but set against a harsh reality. The Sunderbans (Beautiful Forest) are a mangrove estuarine forest in West Bengal and Bangladesh.   These photos were taken on the West Bengal side. The only way in and out of the Sunderbans is through boat.  As a result all imports must be ferried in. During the monsoons the water levels rise.   Today with global warming and deforestations whole islands are drowned and swept away.     Residents near and in the Sunderbans have always built pathways high above the river levels as a barrier from the monsoon floods. Mother and daughter harvest baby shrimp for further cultivation at dawn outside of Bali Tiger Camp.