by Roberto D’Andrea
The Sundarban Tramjatra gave us an opportunity to focus our attention on the Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest in the world, its relationship to Kolkata and to show how trams are not only a friend of people, but also a friend of the ‘natural world’.
Last year Tramjatra celebrated our 30th anniversary of tramway friendship. Why does Tramjatra love trams and our friendship with Kolkata? It’s because trams are efficient & environmentally friendly forms of urban transport. Melbourne & Kolkata are two of the rare surviving tramways of continuous use & members of a prestigious global tram family. Famous cities that also have continuous use tramways include Hong Kong, Toronto, San Francisco, Amsterdam, Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Zurich, Milano, Rome & Torino. Today, to help lower traffic congestion, toxic levels of air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions in a world where global heating and climate change has become a major issue for us all, not only have continuous use tramways expanded their operations, tramway revival in large cities has continued at a rapid pace around the world. Often called light rail, cities across France, Turkey, England, Europe, the US, Canada, Brazil and Australia have rebuilt extensive tramways at great expense. Cities around the world are decarbonising their transport systems, ‘electrifying’ and rebuilding tramways.
Melbourne and Kolkata started tramway operations in the late 1800s at a time when cities worldwide were laying tracks and building tramcars. Both cities retained trams when systems worldwide were destroyed in the 1950s & 60s and replaced by cars, freeways and buses. In 1994, on my first day on Indian soil I was fortunate to meet Belgatchia Depot trammies in the Esplanade. They inviting me to join them at their depot and played like tram children for the day. It was here that a tram friendship seed was sown. On return to Melbourne a friend and co-founder of Tramjatra, Mick Douglas had been given a letter from Dr Debasish Bhattacharrya, which came to him via the Public Transport Users Association. In early 1995, Debasish had written to transport users groups around the world, a sort of SOS message asking for help to save the trams of Calcutta. Mick, Andy Miller (who I’d met while tram conducting on the St Kilda Beach tram) and I were inspired to act. A year later we painted a ‘hand of friendship banner’ with a bunch of enthusiastic trammies at South Melbourne Depot and declared that Belgatchia and South were now sister depots. In October 1996, back in Calcutta for the 2nd time, I went strait to Belgachia Depot. This time I came with a travelling tram show which had a tram photo exhibition, tram destination rolls, Melbourne tram tickets to give to passengers and Malcolm Just’s tram poetry translated into Bengali. After meetings with tram union officials and the Chairman Cum Managing Director of the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC), I was invited to decorate a tram with the trammies at Belgatchia Depot. K Class Tram 349, a wooden bodied tram built in England in the mid 1930’s was the first of 4 trams decorated that year. A privilege and honour to conduct with CTC trammies on the friendship trams, and we got plenty of media and public attention both in India and Australia. It was on this visit that I met another of our co-founders Mahadeb Shi, a filmmaker and tram lover who had just made a film called Kather Baxo. Mahadeb and I have collaborated on all Tramjatra projects ever since. Tramjatra is a work of art with 16 trams decorated in Kolkata and 6 in Melbourne between 1996 and 2025. Friendship trams with names like Bondhu, Calbourne, Tramjatra, Sundari, Cricket, Baccha, Paribeshbandhu, Gitanjali, 20th anniversary trams in both cities, Durga and two 150th anniversary trams preceded this year’s Sundarban Tramjatra tram. All of these trams involved artists, trammies and passengers from both cities when designing and decorating the tram. We have staged over 20 Tramjatra events in both cities in over 30 years of tramway friendship.
ABC Foreign Correspondant - Connies in Kolcutta, 1996
The 2012 Paribesh-bandhu (Eco-friendly) Tramjatra planted a seed which grew into the Sundarban Tramjatra 13 years later. Back then we wanted to show how trams are a ‘friend of the natural world’. We wanted to highlight how plant, animal & human habitats are threatened by climate change, pollution & people. At the Nonapukur Tram Workshops, tram 687 was painted and decorated by Craig Allen and I, with many a Nonapukur trammie. Electrical Shop worker, Ujjal Dhar, was the principal artist. Bird and mammal emblems like the Orange-bellied Parrot, Great Indian Hornbill, Bengal Tiger and Leadbeaters Possum were boldly painted on the tram. Frogs, lizards, plants, butterflies, seadragons, fish & insects from Australia & India also featured. Melbourne Connies performed with CTC trammies to yarn and give away cards with animals painted on the Paribesh tram as it tracked from north to south Kolkata : Belgatchia to Howrah Bridge along famous tram streets like Rabindra Sarani, BBD Bagh and the Esplanade to Park Circus, Gariahat, Kidderpore and Tollygunge. It was wonderful to return to new tram track, smooth running and increased tram speeds….and most importantly, tram derailments, which were a common back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s, had dropped by 90 plus% which gave passengers confidence that they would arrive safely at their destination. Tram patronage had increased in north Kolkata on narrow roads. The Paribeshbandhu Tramjatra started the tram friendship ball between Melbourne and Kolkata to roll again. A year later we staged the Gitanjali Tramjatra on the 100th anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature. Rabindranath loved nature and the natural world. Environment, biodiversity and climate change have been a feature of all our Tramjatras since.
2012 PARIBESHBANDU, ECO-FRIENDLY TRAMJATRA
The 2023 Tramjatra - 150th anniversary of the Kolkata’s tramway helped create a mass ‘public love in’ with the tramways. Organised by our co-founder Mahadeb Shi, decorated trams, performing conductors, song, dance, tram theatre, a historic tram parade and a huge amount of media coverage raised the tram’s profile at a time when the Govt of West Bengal wanted to close the tram system and only leave Kolkata with a short ‘heritage’ tram line. This hugely successful tram festival ran for 6 days and raised the tram debate amongst media and citizens. Once again the Tramjatra team argued for a high frequency passenger tram service and we had some success helping to reopen Route 5 from Shyambazzar to the Esplanade, and ‘empowered’ the WBTC Managing Director, Mr Kapur, to start the driver training program at Tollygunge Depot. (30 points men trained as tram drivers). After the event, the Australian Consul General in Kolkata who had been a great supporter, encouraged ‘Tramjatra’ to apply for Australian Government funding via the Maitri fellowship program, which aims to grow the friendship between Australia and India. Our Sundarban Tramjatra proposal was chosen and funded by the Centre for Australian and Indian Relations. This gave us an opportunity to focus our attention on the Sundarban and once again take the opportunity to show how trams are a friend of the ‘natural world’.
2023 TRAMJATRA - 150th ANNIVERSARY OF KOLKATA's TRAMWAY / Ananda Bazar Patrika
We also called the Sundarban Tramjatra a ‘Learning Festival’. We wanted to highlight the global trend where cities across the world were ‘decarbonising and electrifying transport’ to help reduce air pollution and carbon dioxide emissions. This gave Tramjatra the opportunity to highlight another important reason for tramway revival. Before decorating a WBTC tramcar with a Sundarban ‘environment’ theme, our project team visited the Sundarban to learn about the effects of climate change, its unique biodiversity, people and culture. The Sundarban is fed by two mighty Himalayan rivers, the Ganga and Brahmaputra, making this mangrove wonderland one of the world’s largest deltas. It was here where we met Joydeep Das and Mukut Biswas. We chartered Joydeep’s boat the MB.MAA. He joined us as we slowly cruised the Sundarban waterways spotting kingfishers and migratory birds. Joydeep is a bird and nature enthusiast and has a wealth of knowledge. His images feature on our Sundarban biodiversity cards. With Joydeep we learnt much about the local flora and fauna and after a visit to a national park mangrove information site, we were fortunate to see two Bengal Tigers from the lookout tower, a huge thrill. Our partner NGO is called the Premaya Foundation and it was here where we met Mukut Biswas and his team. Mukut took us to mangrove regeneration sites, Premaya’s nursery and organised a special ‘education day’ for the local community. This gave our new friend and soon to be performing conductor Sajal Mondal, Tony and I a chance to launch the freshly made Sundarban biodiversity and Climate Tiger cards. It was a full house attended by young children and their parents, mostly mothers and their children. To borrow from Mukut’s recollections of the Tramjatra visit, “When the Sundarban Tramjatra team visited us earlier this year, it was much more than an event—it was a meeting of hearts, ideas, and shared dreams for the future. At Premaya, our work has always been rooted in the belief that community-led initiatives are the strongest pathways to resilience. The Tramjatra journey gave us a way to bring this belief alive with colour, performance, and creativity”.
The Sundarban Tramjatra celebrated the largest mangrove forest on planet earth, and its neighbouring megacity Kolkata. Both places have seen increasing social, economic and ecological pressures, with extreme vulnerability to climate change. Sea level rise, extreme summer heat and stronger cyclones are already starting to take their toll. Mangrove Roots and Tram Routes was one of our themes. The extensive Sundarban mangrove forest and Kolkata’s trams are linked. The Sundarban breathes in carbon dioxide and gives us clean air oxygen, is a huge ‘carbon sink’ and rich in biodiversity. This helps lower the damaging effects of strong cyclones reaching Kolkata. The Sundarban mangrove ecosystem supports a wide variety of animal species including a large population of Chital, the largest Indian tiger population, Wild Boar, Fishing & Leopard Cats, small Indian Civets and the Common Otter. Kingsfishers, long distance migratory birds and an impressive list of birds of prey inhabit the Sundarban. Superbly rich in fauna there are 693 species of wildlife. When researching, everything we read about the Sundarban fascinated us. A huge Tiger reserve, Unesco World Heritage site, Ramsar listed wetland for migratory birds and a large mangrove filled National Park.
Intern, if the Kolkata Tramways was revived, this would help lower large volumes of air pollution from being ‘dumped’ on the Sundarban. As Abhijit Chatterjee (an air pollution expert from the Bose Institute) said at our Citizens Assembly, “close to 50% of the toxins found in the soils and waterways of the Sundarban come from ‘transport sector sourced air pollution’ in Kolkata. For every 1 degree increase in global temperatures, this will lead to a 15% decrease in photo synthesis of mangrove trees”. It was made clear by numerous people and groups that ‘Kolkata’s’ survival was dependant on a healthy Sundarban. Extreme summer heat, sea level rise and stronger cyclones would become the norm if Kolkata did not revive its tramways and other Indian and global cities did not decarbonise transport and change their ways.
We launched the Sundarban Tramjatra event on Friday March 28. Four days of tram related activities culminating in a Citizens Assembly on Monday March 31.
Tramjatra 2025 Brings the Sundarban to the Heart of the City
On return to Kolkata we chartered Gariahat Depot tram 256 from the WBTC.
The outside of 256 was decorated with biodiversity, culture and climate change imagery from the Sundarban by Sumantra Mukherjee and his team, at the Nonapukur Tram Workshops. Inspired by her visit with the project team to the Sundarban, Patua Swarna Chitrakar’s drawings featured inside. To help increase ‘understanding’, I trained Sajal Mondal to join Tony and I as performing Tramjatra conductors onboard the Sundarban tram. Sajal speaks fluent Bengali, Hindi and English and was a great addition to the conductor team. Each conductor had a series of Climate Tiger, Sundarban biodiversity and a new series of colourful tram and bookmark tickets to yarn and give away to passengers, both inside and outside the tram. Rajesh Shinde performed a specially written STJ play complete with tiger puppet in Bengali and Hindi. The Sundarban Tram tracked on the two remaining tram routes from north to south Kolkata between Shyambazar and the Esplanade (Route 5) and the Esplanade and Gariahat on Route 25 for 3 days between Friday March 28 and Sunday the 30th.
Sumantra and his team, with Tramjatra co-founders Mick Douglas and Mahadeb Shi designed and built a Sundarban Boat-pandal hub, centrally located in the Esplanade. The STJ hub served as our tram depot where we staged a range of environment, biodiversity, climate and tramway themed activities. Our tram was often ‘parked’ on the siding track close by. Activities included tram drawings by the Kolkata Sketchers, the youth led Thoughtshop Foundation giving us ‘totem’ animals to look after, Mumbai designer Sangeeth Sarkar and his ‘adapting to place and climate’ workshops and ‘print your ticket for change’ with Rob Eales and Neal Haslem. In the evening a Sundarban soundscape produced by Pratyay Raha, Swarna, Rajesh and Biproy and his band Ektara Desi staging musical performances, guest speakers and more. Award winning filmmaker Ashoke Viswanathan was our MC. Thousands of locals, trammies and media attended and our depot turned into a meeting place with the tram picking up and dropping off passengers.
Sandip Roy, a freelance journalist who writes for the BBC and other publications wrote an article about the Sundarban Tramjatra. Sandip followed the 150th anniversary celebrations and knows Tramjatra well. Titled, The Nostalgia of Trams-everyone has a story, and subtitled, The Sundarban Tramjatra aims to raise awareness about trams and the Sundarban. But the struggle to save trams in the teeth of government opposition remains an uphill one.
“Sundari tram amader, Sundarban. (Our beautiful trams, our Sundarban) As Swarna Chitrakar sings about crouching tigers and trundling trams at the Esplanade tram terminus in Kolkata, she unrolls a scroll she has painted. Tigers pounce on a flock of fleeing deer. Snow-white cranes fly over blue waters and kingfishers swoop to catch fish. A rishi sits in prayer at an ashram in Gangasagar while boxy tramcars run along the edges of the scroll, the passengers sitting by the windows engrossed in newspapers. It seems an odd juxtaposition. Tram lines do not run through the mangrove forests and waterways of the Sundarbans. But Chitrakar, a folk artist who paints ‘patachitras’, isn’t selling a tiger-safari tourist-brochure version of the Sundarban. On her scroll she has painted women carrying baskets of mud on their heads to shore up the riverbank. She sings about pollution and cyclones and climate change”.
Sandip goes onto write, “In the 1990’s we didn’t think about Climate Change says environmental journalist Jayanta Basu. Now carbon emissions from transport are a major issue. Kolkata in the last 60 years has shown the highest average temperature rise globally as per the IPCC (United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report, 2.67 degrees Celsius from 1958 to 2018. What fewer people know is that 90% of the emissions have actually been created within greater Kolkata itself. That’s why the Sundarban Tramjatra with free tram rides, art workshops, cultural programmes and panel discussions wants to look beyond Kolkata to the entire region. We wanted to bring the Sundarban into the conversation explains Mahadeb Shi”.
“Trams are a way to lower carbon emissions and pollution. (Tramjatra conductor) D’Andrea has designed little cards to drive home that message. He hands them out to curious onlookers peppering his spiel with smidgens on Bengali. Monsoon Baagh (tiger), he says, handing out one which shows a tiger clinging to a branch in a torrential rain storm. The back reads. “Air and carbon pollution is heating our planet and is making monsoon season cyclones stronger and more damaging.” Summer Tiger gasps in a parched landscape under a glaring sun. Sea level Rise Tiger barely manages to keep its head above water while fish swim around it. Finally with a flourish, D’Andrea hands out the solution. Clean Air Tiger gives both thumbs up to electric trams. Poribesh bandhu (friend of the environment), D’Andrea says. Shi and D’Andrea and their band of tram-yatris are dressed in what they call their ‘Sundari lung’ uniforms. (Designed by Mick Douglas and Neil Haslem) Fedora green shirts, shorts and long socks like Melbourne connies but the shirts have a Sundarban touch. They are emblazoned with designs of mangrove leaves and lungs on the chest. The usually run-down streetcar also has gotten a makeover for the Sundarban Tramjatra. Daubs of white paint cover the tram’s body with Sundarban motifs in Worli tribal art style. A black and yellow striped snake sculpture slither towards a window next to a red crab. Mangroves painted in white spring up along the sides, while turtles and cranes keep watch and a tiger lurks at the door. Graffiti plays on connections like Ticket Collector and Honey Collector.”
On Monday March 31 we staged a Citizens Assembly: Reckoning Climate Crisis in the Sundarbans & Kolkata was staged at the ICCR Rabindranath Tagore Centre, Satyajit Ray Auditorium. The bio-regional arranged marriage between the Sundarban and Kolkata was explored. MC Jayanta Basu and Artistic Director Mahadeb Shi invited a variety of Bengali and Sundarban based academics from the environment, climate, arts and transport sectors to present on stage. The event focused on the importance of protecting the Sundarban’s unique biodiversity, understanding the causes and effects of climate change, support for Kolkata’s tramways and ‘decarbonising transport’ solutions. In a Times of India report on Tuesday April 2, journalist Krishnendu Bandyopadhyay wrote, “The City’s historic tramways took centre stage in discussions on urban sustainability and climate resilience at a gathering of experts on Monday. The event, which marked the historic Sundarban Tramjatra, brought together specialists who underscored the link between Kolkata’s transport emissions and the fragile ecosystem of the Sundarban. Given the crucial role of mangroves in protecting the region, and particularly the City of Kolkata from climate change and natural disasters, this revelation reinforced the urgency of decarbonising transport efforts. Experts at the event stressed that Kolkata, a city highly vulnerable to climate change, cannot afford unchecked motorisation. Bhargab Maitra, a transportation expert from IIT-Kharagpur, said, “Not only does it worsen emission levels, it also chokes the city as seen in urban centres like Bengaluru. Urban Economist Malaya Chatterjee emphasized, “that trams meet meet all three criteria for successful public transport - cost efficiency, regularity and convenience. Discontinuing the tram service would be the greatest suicidal act for the city”. Calcutta born transport expert Alok Jain, CEO of Trans-consult, an urban mobility consulting firm based in Hong Kong said, “Kolkata is fortunate that it retained its tramway. It’s ahead of its time. If the government gave him the tramways, he would increase patronage and run trams at zero-loss to the Government”.
The Sundarban Tramjatra event was a huge hit and received considerable media coverage across a variety of formats which included newspapers, television and online media publications. The Sundarban Tramjatra team prepared a media strategy which included preparing a series of performative conductor and STJ tram photos that media outlets could access via the website. Our first media conference was staged at the Kolkata Press Club on Wednesday March 19, media continued to cover the event while we were in the Sundarban and at the official launch of the Sundarban Tramjatra on Friday March 28. We also followed up with a media release to promote the Citizens Assembly. For anyone that would like to see some video and listen to audio. The Jiyo Bangla news report and Sandip Roy podcast links below will give some more insight into the STJ.
As a part of the 2025 Sundarban Tramjatra Mick Douglas, Neal Haslem and Rob Eales set up and designed our website which overviews the event.
www.sundarbantramjatra.net
Special thanks to our many volunteers. Media volunteers Anurag Mitra and Souroshanka Maji, Deep Das for helping us with tram selection, conducting, media photos and logistics. The entire Sundarban Tramjatra event was filmed and photographed by Shaan and many of our volunteers like Tanmoy Ganguly, Sagnik Gupta and Anurag Mitra. Thanks too our longtime friend, head of the CTUA and tram activist Dr Debasish Bhattacharyya, Indranil, Rudranil and everyone who has helped stage the many Tramjatras over the years. This Sundarban Tramjatra will most likely be our last Melbourne Kolkata Tramjatra to be staged in Kolkata. The Tramjatra Australian and Indian team of Mahadeb, Mick, Tony, Neil, Rob, Phil and I were keen to hand on the tradition to a younger generation. We would like to finish our long association and friendship in Melbourne and stage a Sundarban Tramjatra here. Climate Change is a global issue. It needs everyone to act. We sincerely hope that the TMC run Govt of West Bengal, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and Kolkata Traffic Police change their thinking and support the tramways before it’s too late. Long live the trams of Kolkata, the CTUA and Tramjatra.
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