From the archive record
Men on the middle of the sea struggling to balance the boat, while paddling with a wooden oar near the Bakkhali beach on the Bay of Bengal. Bakkhali is a seaside resort in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India. It is located on one of the many deltaic islands that spread across southern Bengal. Most of the islands are part of the Sunderbans range, barring a few at the fringes. Some of these are joined together with bridges over narrow creeks. This small island juts out into the vastness of the Bay of Bengal. It has a 7 km long beach stretching from Bakkhali to Frasergunj, its twin beach, with gently rolling waves. These are twin towns now forming one continuous locality. Casuarina trees line the beach. Except on an occasional holiday, the beach is not crowded. Even if one pa