Sundarbans is on Fire - Winter and Monsoon 2024

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

This is my first post here, but I've been a long-time reader of this forum. I've been able to use a lot of information from the Trip Reports of others on here when planning some of my own trips, so I wanted to contribute something as well. I recently did two 3-day trips to the Sundarbans in January of 2024 and then three 3-day trips and one 2-day trip in August and September of 2024. 

 

In the past, and a belief still commonly held by many, the Sundarbans was/is not a place that people travel with the expectation that they will see a tiger. And while it's still not guaranteed, the chances of seeing a tiger on the Indian side seems to have increased greatly over the past 5-7 years or so I have been told.

I hadn't really considered going to the Sundarbans myself due to the belief in a lack of tiger sightings, but one day while browsing FaceBook I decided to look up "Sundarbans Tiger" or something along those lines. I began seeing relatively recent photos of tiger sightings posted by tourists, guides and boatmen.

 

Around late November/early December of 2023 I began looking up and reaching out to the people via WhatsApp that I felt had a lot of pictures on their pages. One of the people I messaged and ended up going with (Krishanu Manna) had quite a few photos and their most recent post at the time stated, "Sundarbans is on fire" with pics of recent tiger sightings. 

 

The Sundarbans is best visited during a low tide period, where it's easier to track the pugmarks of tigers and also you have a better chance of seeing them on the move at the edges of the mangroves. Every single day has multiple high and low tide periods, however there are special time periods of 3-5 days out of every 15 days, when the tide is at its lowest and for a longer period of time. These are the optimal periods for tiger sightings. If anyone needs more clarification regarding this, feel free to ask and I'll try to explain it better. I'm not the best at explaining but have a general idea of how it works and how to figure out these dates based on what I've been told.

 

Also I was told that unlike many parts of India where summer months are the prime time, tiger sightings are relatively uniform throughout the year in the Sundarbans. The park remains open year-round, but I was told to avoid the cyclone season which is roughly from May-June. 

There are also basically 2 types of tours that people can do in the Indian portion of the Sundarbans. The first is a picnic tour. Such tours have been happening for decades probably and involve people going out on boats and sampling local foods - mainly seafood. They cruise around but don't really focus on seeing wildlife. The other type of tour, a photography tour, focusing on wildlife, is newer. And while picnic boats do see tigers, it is a photography tour that gives people a higher chance. 

 

When I asked Krishanu what my chances were of seeing a tiger, he told me, "In 3 days, I expect you may get one sighting." I wasn't sure what to think but decided to give it a chance, booking two tours in January of this year. The first tour was during the first week of January and the second was around the third week of the month.

Krishanu has his tours last for 3 days and it basically works like this:

Day 1 - Pick up from Kolkata either in the afternoon or early evening and then it is a 3-4 hour drive to a place called Gadkhali which is the end of the road and entry point for the Sundarbans. Then a boat (usually the boat you will take for your tour) will take you to your accommodation closer to the actual national park. 

Day 2 - Get on the boat anywhere from 4:45 AM - 5:20 AM or so. Breakfast and lunch are on the boat. You have an all-day safari and then return to your accommodation around sunset time for dinner and sleeping.
Day 3 - Same as Day 2

Day 4 - The same as Day 2/3, except after sunset the boat returns to Gadkhali and from there you will be taken back to Kolkata by car/van.

 

There are some operators which also run 4 day trips. It is essentially the same schedule but instead of being picked up on Day 1 in the afternoon/early evening, you are picked up at around 3 AM from Kolkata, get to Gadkhali around 5-6 AM and then begin a full day safari. Out of the 5 safari's I have done in the Sundarbans, I did one with a 3 AM pickup but felt it was a bit too exhausting. Plus I didn't see a tiger with that extra/first day. If I did, the exhaustion may have been worth it. 

 

Like all Indian Parks (at least as far as I know) the Sundarbans has a "Tourism Zone" and a "Non-Tourism/Core Zone" which is off-limits. The off-limits area is basically the furthest southern parts of the park. I was told that the reason for relatively good sightings is that there are 3 different female/mother tigers that all have 2 cubs (sub-adults now), that have their territory in the non-tourism zone. There are other tigers as well, including solitary males, in the tourism zone but they are not seen as commonly seen.

Edited Wednesday at 05:56 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

The Sundarbans are not Africa or even central India. There will be lengthy periods of time in a day where you may see absolutely nothing. Not a single bird, crocodile, wild boar, spotted deer, monitor lizard, or any species of monkey. Of course over a 3 day plus trip it is quite likely you will see all of those but there were times where I would be looking for something, anything, to photograph and pass my time. 

For this reason (and to spare you from boredom) I won't break down my trip report(s) day-by-day, because I didn't really keep track of each day. And my laptop memory is full so I haven't been able to upload all my more recent photos. The better tiger ones have been uploaded, but not the birds and other animals. I will eventually do that and add them into this report but it may take some time. 
 

I'm just going to break it down into a few separate posts, one for each trip - the January/winter sightings, and then the August-September/monsoon sightings. 

Edited Wednesday at 07:30 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

First week of January 2024 

 

Winter in the Sundarbans was actually pretty cold and far from t-shirt and shorts weather. Everyone (including me) was wearing pants and jackets/sweaters. The wind of the boat moving added a layer of cold as well. In addition to that, there was almost always a sort of haze/mist in the air. It was more pronounced in the morning and evening time, but even during the peak of the day I felt it was there. I do wonder if it is air pollution from burning or other factors because the air quality chart/map even in the Sundarbans during that time was shown as quite poor. This had an impact on my photos I felt during that time period. 

Due to the cooler weather and perhaps vacation period, the Sundarbans is a bit more busy at this time. More picnic boats and more photography tour boats as well.

 

My first 3-day trip during the first week of January went like this:
First two days. No tigers.

Now it's the third and final day and everyone on the boat is getting a bit anxious and disappointed. Krishanu was not there for the first two days, but was able to join in. Suddenly he gets a call/text from another boat that there has been some movement seen. We rush towards an area (honestly I'm not sure of the area names, but all the boats basically cover all the areas/same areas while searching) where it was seen and suddenly he mentions that he see's one. It is a solitary male, rarely seen, and gives us this sighting. 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:17 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Third Week of January 2024

 

During my second trip I believe we had a sighting on the second day. This was earlier in the morning, and so quite foggy/misty. A female tiger with her two cubs crossing one canal.

 

 

 

 

The same day around the evening time when we are getting ready to leave the park our guide suddenly see's with his binoculars a tiger sitting on the edge of land looking to cross a channel of water. As he see's it, so does another (picnic) boat. The picnic boat quickly accelerates towards it and scares it off into the forest. I get one shot, but it's not that good. 

Apparently after we left for the day it did come out and a few boats got a rather good sighting of it.

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:34 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Third Week of August 2024

 

During the third week of August, I returned to India, with the plans of doing 3-4 more Sundarbans trips - this time during the monsoon season. The atmosphere was totally different. There was no haze or fog. Sometimes the skies would be a dark gray, signs of a downpour about to occur. Other times we would have clear blue skies with a few white clouds. It was very hot and humid, but in my opinion, this time of year was better for photography due to better lighting and no haze to deal with. There were still other boats on the water, but less than in winter. 

 

This trip was 4 days long, including that very rough 3 AM pick-up/start from Kolkata.

 

During this trip, we had no sightings until the 4th and final day. That day, soon after we entered the actual park and area which separates the wild from the human habited areas, our guide suddenly saw a female/mother tiger sitting on the banks of the water. It was likely looking to cross. I only have this one decent photo right now (others came out underexposed and I have zero editing knowledge, but I was told they can be salvaged/fixed), but it was a pretty good sighting. We were the only boat and were able to head fairly close towards it. It just sat there watching us for quite some time before decided to move on. 

 

 

Following this, other boats saw us and headed in the same direction but the tiger was already gone. Now the madness started. Since the tiger was nearby, some boats went to the left and others to the right. We did the same but there was no movement seen. I felt maybe it went deeper into the forest or perhaps it was nearby but we just couldn't see it. Eventually our guide had our boat join a few others at one canal nearby to where it was last seen.

A few minutes later we saw that tiger and its two cubs (sub-adults) emerge and cross one canal before disappearing.

 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 06:37 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Fourth/Last Week of August 2024

 

This was a 3-day long "private tour". I forgot to mention in my original post that there are both group tours and private tours in the Sundarbans. I was originally scheduled for a group tour with another operator (the one from the third week of August) who told me only a few days left that they actually had no tour for the last week of August). I was not happy to be informed about this at the last minute when I planned my trip over 5 months in advance! I then went back to Mr. Reliable (Krishanu). The only problem is that he also didn't have a group tour during that time! Both tour operators and one guide that I made friends with tried to find me another group to join at the last minute but we had no luck. Now I was in trouble. I had no choice but to pay up for a private tour/boat. I was a bit fortunate that he found 2-3 other people to join me in an effort to reduce costs. 

 

During the first day, almost every single boat aside from mine, had a sighting. 

Then during the second day, our boat/guide was the first one to spot a tiger and we had this sighting of a female tiger with her two cubs crossing about 4 different canals. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third and final day of this 3-day trip our guide found pugmarks in the morning hours. As he was attempting to track which way they may have gone, he received a call from a nearby boat, that there is a tiger(s) sitting at/inside the base of some palm type tree's. 

 

We went there and were able to see them, but though they were only a few feet away from the edge, we could barely see them. After a few minutes, two of them emerged and gave us a good view. After this they disappeared back into the vegetation and we positioned ourselves at the nearest canal to the right while other boats positioned themselves at the nearest canal to the left. In the end, they probably went into the forest and nobody saw them after that. 

 

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:15 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Second Week of September 

 

I had 12 days to kill between my prior trip at the end of August and this trip during the second week of September. At this point I had only spent about 10 days in India, but big cities in India are not my thing, and so I wanted to get out of Kolkata. I saw they have direct flights to Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and Yangon. I opted for Yangon since it was the cheapest to get to and the closest. Since I was only in Yangon and it was more of an urban/city trip I won't go into much detail (unless anyone has questions) other than to say from a wildlife perspective - if I'm born as animal in some next life, I hope it's not in Myanmar. 

 

Due to limited flight connections between Yangon and Kolkata I ended up missing Day 1 of my next three-day tour to the Sundarbans. I knew I was going to miss it going in and was fine with it because I felt sightings on Day 1 are less likely. Well, luck was not with me this time, as the group I was part of saw a tiger on Day 1. During Day 2 and Day 3 we saw nothing. The weather was really bad during both days though - it rained almost the entire day and there was a lot of wind. 

 

Due to the wind, low tide never became a true low tide since the water was not totally going out into the Bay of Bengal. I was told that in the Sundarbans rain doesn't negatively impact tiger sightings, but wind does. 

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Last Week of September

 

My last and final trip to the Sundarbans took place during the last days of September. Another 3-day trip, this time we had a brief sighting on the second day. It was a female tiger crossing one canal. After this, it crossed a bigger channel of water but many boats came towards it which led to it running away quickly once it got on land. I wasn't able to get a good shot of it crossing the bigger channel of water due to the distance and other boats in the way, but we were in pretty good position for it to cross the one canal. It's cubs were perhaps somewhere left behind in the commotion - but I'm not fully sure.

 

 

Edited Wednesday at 07:09 AM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

Well that's it for the tiger sighting portion of this trip report. I have photos of additional wildlife seen during these trips but it may take me some time to post them. I will give a list below of what I did see from what I can remember

 

Wild Boar - I saw these more in the winter time than in the monsoon time. Now that I think about it, I saw very few during the monsoon time.

Spotted Deer - Seen every day

Black Capped Kingfisher - Seen every day during the winter I believe. I didn't see any in August but September had more sightings. I believe they probably migrate around September and remain in the winter time.

Ruddy Kingfisher - Can't recall if I saw it.

Brown Winged Kingfisher - Seen during both the winter and the monsoon season

Collared Kingfisher - Seen during both the winter and the monsoon season

Common Kingfisher - Seen during both the winter and the monsoon season

Pied Kingfisher - I can't remember if I saw it during the winter but I did see it in the monsoon season

Buffy Fish Owl - Saw it in the winter, but not during the monsoon. I was thinking it'd be more likely to be seen in the monsoon but I may be wrong

King Cobra - Saw a baby one in a hollowed out tree branch/trunk during the monsoon season. A guide also saw one swimming and took a pic, but I missed it. 

Red Tailed Bamboo Pit Viper - Saw two during the monsoon season. 

Peregerine Falcon - Saw it during the monsoon. I think during the winter as well but can't quite remember.

Lesser Adjutant Stork - Seen during both the winter and the monsoon. Pretty good sightings of those are possible. 

Monitor Lizard - Seen on every trip - both winter and monsoon.

Jungle Cat - We saw two during the winter time. They seem to live closer to/alongside humans - so outside the park offers the best chances to see them.

 

One animal, which apparently many people have seen in the Sundarbans, but now mythical as far as my luck is concerned is the smooth coated otter. In all my trips I have never seen one there. Perhaps they are more common on the Bangladesh side.

 

There are also leopard cats and fishing cats. Both are pretty rare, but I have seen photos of them taken by other tours/boats.

Edited Wednesday at 06:11 PM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[wilddog]

@ExpandParkBoundariesThanks for posting this. A park rarely mentioned here. The scenery is so different to the other India parks I have visited.

Can you confirm that all tours of the area are only by boat?

Edited Wednesday at 11:51 AM by wilddog

[TonyQ]

A very interesting report. Your determination gave you some very good sightings of Tigers. Thank you

[AKR1]

Thanks for doing this about a little mentioned park in terms of Tigers/ wildlife although very well known in Bengal for general visits. 

Commend you on your perseverance with repeated visits and upfront knowledge that tiger sightings were going to be challenging.
 

Good perspective and some extraordinary pictures of the rarely seen Sunderban tiger that I understand also have some man-eaters in their midst.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Indian authorities do not go after man-eaters in the Sunderbans, only warn locals not to venture there. Apparently people going there for work ( gathering fruit etc) wear masks at the back of their heads as Tigers are reputed not to attack people head on but rather from the back.
 

National Geographic had a superb article on the Sunderbans many years ago. 

Edited Wednesday at 06:39 PM by AKR1
Typo

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

7 hours ago, wilddog said:

@ExpandParkBoundariesThanks for posting this. A park rarely mentioned here. The scenery is so different to the other India parks I have visited.

Can you confirm that all tours of the area are only by boat?

 

It is very different indeed - I am going to try and post some of the landscape shots I had as well but they aren't the best. During the winter I used a 200-500mm zoom lens and during this monsoon period I had a 500mm prime lens. I regret that I didn't bring another lens to focus on the landscapes. 

 

Yes that's correct, the only way to get around within the park is by boat. There are a couple (1-2 I think that tourists can access) watch towers within the park that you can get off at when traveling by boat, but from what I've seen it's only the picnic boats that do so regularly. The photography tours don't seem to go there unless they've had good sightings during their tour and are looking to pass time at the end, or unless there is news of wildlife at them. In September we did stop at one because there was news of a red tailed bamboo pit viper seen in a tree on the watchtower grounds.

 

At one of the watch towers there is a large man-made pond, used to collect fresh rainwater. It was thought that by building this, tigers and other animals (spotted deer/wild boar) would come to drink from it rather than the saltwater found all around. Apparently they do come at times, but it's quite rare. 

 

The human-inhabited area bordering the park (and where all the accommodations are located) is built on what used to be mangroves a very long time ago. In that area there are roads, scattered homes/villages and rice fields. The tigers are kept out for the most part due to nylon fencing, but the human inhabited area is apparently good for birding, snakes and also jungle cats. We had a sighting of two jungle cats one evening after exiting the national park/forest during the winter time.  The human inhabited area can be covered by either motorbike electric rickshaw. 

[ExpandParkBoundaries]

3 hours ago, AKR1 said:

Thanks for doing this about a little mentioned park in terms of Tigers/ wildlife although very well known in Bengal for general visits. 
comment you on your perseverance with repeated visits and upfront knowledge that tiger sightings were going to be challenging.
 

Good perspective and some extraordinary pictures of the rarely seen Sunderban tiger that I understand also have some man-eaters in their midst.

 

To the best of my knowledge, Indian authorities do not go after man-eaters in the Sunderbans, only warn locals not to venture there. Apparently people going there for work ( gathering fruit etc) wear masks at the back of their heads as Tigers are reputed not to attack people head on but rather from the back.
 

National Geographic had a superb article on the Sunderbans many years ago. 

 

Absolutely correct on all accounts!

 

I noticed that when I was doing these tours, the vast majority of the visitors were from Kolkata or other parts of Bengal. Occasionally there would be someone from other parts of India, but it wasn't too common. 

I do recall on every tour hearing the words "man-eater" in English by guides/visitors alike. I wish I had more insight as to whether they were talking in general terms or about specific tigers. But I do believe what you say is true - the authorities don't seem to go after tigers that go after humans. I remember hearing in the news that there was an attack in February of this year.

 

One person told me there were quite a few attacks during Covid times. A lot of people in Bengal migrate to other parts of India for work and the Sundarbans population is no different. But due to restrictions on movement during that time, many people that were normally migrant workers ended up staying there and would go into the forest to help collect crabs, fruit and honey. I was told that many of those people had no experience entering the forest (wearing the wrong footwear, not knowing how to be careful, etc) and there were many incidents at that time. I can't fully verify this but it sort of makes sense.

 

I don't think I saw any honey-collecting boats/people, but I did see crab collecting boats. They are much smaller and it seemed like they didn't have an engine/motor either. They were using paddles or a long pole/stick to get around. They are able to enter smaller/shallower canals that our boats could not. My guess is that those are especially dangerous places to be and then being on those very small and slow boats offers almost no protection or escape against a tiger. I would have loved to be on one of those boats for a day for the experience lol but was told it's not really possible to join them.

 

I have also heard about people wearing masks on the back of their heads as a way to protect from being attacked from behind and seen photos one, but I didn't see it in person. I'm not sure if that was because of the time of year (honey collection is around April-May I believe), or if they only wear them when they are deeper inside the narrow canals, or if that's just more often seen/used on the Bangladesh side though.

 

I'd love to find that National Geographic article! From what I see, in terms of documentaries, there isn't much Sundarban tiger coverage. Usually a little bit, but mainly the impacts of erosion or cyclones in the area, victims of tiger attacks - but little actual tiger footage. I suppose it makes some sense because sightings are not too common and when they do occur they don't last very long. Drones are not allowed there, but I am guessing National Geographic/BBC/etc could find a way to get permission. 

Edited Wednesday at 06:09 PM by ExpandParkBoundaries

[AKR1]

 

https://www.vice.com/en/article/tigers-crocodiles-fishermen-and-bandits-are-at-war-in-the-sundarbans/
 

 

Below is a more academic article on the Sundarban Tiger:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266671932300033X

 

An old but relevant article from 2008:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/04/21/tigerland

Edited Wednesday at 07:57 PM by AKR1