Hakaluki Haor

A haor is a bowl-shaped depression in the north-east of Bangladesh that fills into a shallow inland sea through the monsoon and drains down to a network of permanent pools and paddy in the dry season, and Hakaluki is one of the largest, covering something like eighteen thousand hectares with more than two hundred separate beels or pools within it. It is an ecologically critical area and one of the country's most important sites for wintering waterbirds, with very large numbers of ducks, waders and other species arriving from the north, along with a substantial fishery that supports many villages. Visiting means a boat and a local contact; there is no infrastructure and the way to see it is to go out at dawn.

What you actually see

• A seasonal inland sea - the basin filling and draining each year.
• Very large wintering duck flocks - the birds arriving from the north.
• More than two hundred beels - the pools within the wider basin.
• A working fishery - the villages living off the water.

When to go

December to February for the birds, when numbers are highest and the water has fallen. A day, starting before dawn. A boat and a local contact are necessary; there is no tourist arrangement.

Honest expectations

There is no visitor infrastructure of any kind. Boats are arranged informally in villages. Birding needs a telescope and experience. Illegal netting and hunting affect the site. It is cold and exposed on the water at dawn in winter.

Nearby

Kulaura is south; Sylhet lies north-west.