Sundarbans National Park

The Sundarbans is the Indian share of the largest mangrove forest on earth, a tidal maze of creeks, mudflats and salt-tolerant trees where the Ganges delta meets the Bay of Bengal. You see it entirely from a boat, drifting along channels that widen and narrow with the tide, past banks of breathing roots and occasional watchtowers built over forest clearings. Tigers live here and swim between islands, but the mangrove is dense and sightings are rare; what you actually get is crocodile on the mud, spotted deer at the water's edge, kingfishers, monitor lizards and the enormous quiet of the delta. Villages of fishers and honey collectors line the inhabited fringe.

History

The first forest management division with jurisdiction over the Sundarbans was set up in 1869, and in 1875 a large part of the mangrove forest was declared reserved forest under the Forest Act of 1865, the rest following the next year; a forest division with its headquarters in Khulna was created in 1879, and the first management plan covered 1893-1898. In 1911 the area was described as a tract of unexamined waste country, a water-logged jungle full of tigers where attempts at reclamation had mostly failed, and was left out of the census. The present park was declared the core of the Sundarban Tiger Reserve in 1973, a wildlife sanctuary in 1977 and a national park on 4 May 1984; it became a World Heritage Site in 1987, part of the world network of biosphere reserves on 10 November 2001 and a Ramsar site in 2019 (Wikipedia, Sundarbans National Park).

What's there

• The tidal creeks - narrow channels that change shape with every tide.
• Mangrove forest - dense salt-tolerant trees standing on tangles of breathing roots.
• Estuarine crocodiles and water monitors - basking on the mudbanks at low tide.
• The watchtowers - fixed viewing platforms at Sudhanyakhali and Sajnekhali over clearings and waterholes.

When to go

November to February is the settled, cool, dry season and the only comfortable time to spend whole days on an open boat. March onward gets hot and humid, and the monsoon from June brings rain and rough water. Trips are sold as two or three day packages on a live-aboard or lodge basis, and permits are arranged by the operator rather than by you.

Before you go

This is a landscape trip, not a wildlife spectacle. Tiger sightings are very rare, and some visitors leave feeling that hours of identical green banks did not add up to much. Boats are slow, the sun on open water is punishing, and mosquitoes are constant. Package quality varies widely, and cheap trips usually mean cramped boats and rushed routes.

Nearby

Kolkata and its old riverfront quarters are the usual start and end point.

Key facts