SAQ (Short Answers Questions):
- From which has the extract ‘Sundarbans Inheritance’ been taken from?
Ans 1: This extract of Bittu Sahgal “The Sundarbans Inheritance” has been taken from his book “The Sundarbans Inheritance”.
- What is Bittu Sahgal requesting his readers in this extract?
Ans 2: Here in this extract, Bittu Sahgal is urging his readers to save the depleting tiger population while we still can.
- Which types of snakes rushed against the legs of the narrator?
Ans 3: Yellow-striped, grey-green and checkered keelbacks types of snakes rushed against the legs of the narrator.
- What are “checkered keelbacks”?
Ans 4: Checkered keelbacks are a common species of snake found in the coastal Asia which are non-venomous in nature. They are also called Asiatic water snakes.
(Note: Questions 5–10 continue on the next page)
5. What has been referred to as “impressionable years”?
Ans 5: The growth period of narrator in Calcutta has been referred to as impressionable years where he was influenced much by Sundarbans.
6. What idea had the narrator about Sundarbans during his impressionable years?
Ans 6: During his narrator’s impressionable years, the Sundarbans was always a dark, mysterious, forbidding place where tigers used to live for him.
7. What would make the narrator’s pulse race?
Ans 7: The thought of visiting a forest where tigers lived outside the cage would make his pulse race.
8. What was the narrator’s feelings regarding the ‘deep swamps’?
Ans 8: The narrator had a feeling that the deep swamps existed in a time before the advent of man.
9. Where do the terrestrial and marine species take shelter in Sundarbans?
Ans 9: The terrestrial species occupied the upper canopy of shrubs and trees, while the marine species leave live underneath amidst the roots and mud.
10. What has been referred to as ‘tipping point’?
Ans 10: It has been referred here that Sundarbans has almost reached the ‘tipping point’ where further damage by humans could push the ecosystem into an ecological tailspin worst of condition.
Long Question:
1. What description did the author give about the tidal world?
Ans: The tidal world was dominated by three colours — blue skies, green mangroves and brown mud. It is a half-way world between land and sea, which often offer refugee to both terrestrial and marine species, with the former largely occupying the upper canopy of shrubs and trees, while the latters live underneath amidst the roots and mud. Mangrove plants themselves are ultra-adapted to cope with salinity. To extract pure water from brine, their cells exert a higher osmotic pressure than seawater. Some species have learnt to shed leaves loaded with salt. Other mangrove species actually possess salt glands and hairs that help excrete species. In addition, all mangrove fruit and shoots float to facilitate seed dispersal across the ocean.
2. What is the danger Bittu Sahgal has spoken about in the extract ‘The Sundarbans Inheritance’ about the mangroves? How have Sundarbans acted as a Protective sheet to India & Bangladesh? How can one overcome the danger & the threat which the mangroves are facing? (2+2+2=6)
Ans: In this extract ‘The Sundarbans Inheritance’ Bittu Sahgal writes that we all are aware of the myths and legends that abound the Sundarbans are often just that, and not always found on reality. We are also aware about the topic that Sundarbans has almost reached the ‘tipping point’ where further damage by humans could push the ecosystem into an ecological tailspin, from which the tiger and its co-inhabitants may never recover. Roughly one million hectares of the world’s present 15 million hectares of mangrove exist as the Sundarbans, spread across both India and Bangladesh. The author is urging people to save forest mangrove depletion.
The tangle mangrove system of plants, channels and islands have sheltered Kolkata and Khulna from the fury of cyclonic winds in the Bay of Bengal for eons, yet few people are aware of this thing. Millions who live in the protective shadow of the Sundarbans are even less aware that their fish markets — melting pots of Bengali culture and culinary pride — are direct beneficiaries of the Sundarbans inheritance.
The staggering diversity of life forms of the Sundarbans can be protected overcome from the serious threat if we all allow it to be repaired and renewed by the nature and its care.