The changing tastes have also hit the prices of a sugar grade that goes into Bengali sweets made from `chhana' or cottage cheese -- another item that is in deep trouble.

When a `palla' (5kg) of good quality delicious mango is available between Rs 40 and Rs 60, it is very natural for the thrifty Bengali to neglect the sandesh and its cousins.

Shops selling traditional Bengali sweets say that this year's bumper mango crop -- which has pushed down prices -- coupled with the huge range available in the markets, has pushed down demand for evergreen favourites such as the `sandesh'.

"It is natural that sweets will be neglected in the Bengali households," said the owner of New Jalkhabar, which sells traditional Bengali milk-sweets.

"Mango has affected our business to a greatextent reducing the daily turnover of sweets such as `sandesh' and `rossogolla' by over half," he said.

At New Jalkhabar's Moulali shop, located near the densely populated Sealdah area, sales of sweets varied between Rs 5000 and Rs 6000 during normal days, doubling during festival time.

Now, with mangoes reigning in the market, sales have fallen to around Rs 2500 a day, sometimes even less.

The unprecedented production of mangoes this season has pushed out many items from the Bengali's daily menu. Such is the impact that common people are offering their guests mangoes instead of sweetmeats and dry snacks.

Meanwhile, weekly despatches of course grain sugar (better quality M-30 grade), an important ingredient of Bengali sweets, have declined to about 2,000 tonnes during the current period as against the normal weekly offtake of 4,000 tonnes, said a leading sugar merchant.

This substantiates reports about the dwindling demand for sweets.

`Chhana', a soft version of the north Indian `paneer', is introuble because it most Bengali sweets are made from it.

At Bowbazar's Chhanapatti in central Calcutta, to which `chhana is brought from neighbouring districts by train, one can sense the despair.

Sambhu Ghosh, a leading wholesaler and commission agent, turns to cricket to express his despair: "Mangoes have us clean bowled. Sales as well as prices have plunged".

The Bowbazar Chhanapatti is the smallest among the cottage cheese wholesale markets. Even so, it used to sell around two quintals of the stuff every day. Current sales: barely 40kg.

Ghosh points out that prices have nosedived from the Rs 70 hit before the mango flood to around Rs 40 a kg now. With makers of cottage cheese incurring heavy losses, many of them have stopped bringing their product to the market.

Mango merchants are not moved by the sorrow of their Bengali brethren. Haripada Sarkar, secretary of the Maldah Mango Merchants' Association, says the production in that district alone is estimated at 125 lakh tonnes. Production wouldhave been even higher -- 250 lakh tonnes -- had it not been for the drought earlier this year.

Then, lesser areas in the state such as Basirhat and Santipur have together produced around 1 lakh maunds (40kkg each). At the College Street wholesale market, daily market arrivals are around 150 mini trucks carrying around 75 maunds each.

Adding to the range -- and sparking the price war -- is the produce from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. At the retail level, mango prices have declined to Rs 8 - 10 per kg during the past week, hardening by a few rupees later as Basirhat's supplies petered off.

According to Tapan Majumder, a leading wholesaler at the College Street market, prices will fall again when Malda mangoes come in now, as they do at the end of the season.