Sundarbans Tours & Experiences

Things to do in Sundarbans

Everything happens on the water or at camps open to visitors; our Sundarbans travel guide describes each.

Cruise the creeks on the tide

The delta floods and drains twice daily, so the tide decides which creeks a boat can enter. The routes are fixed by the reserve, from the Bagna and Jhilla runs to the Raimongal along the Bangladesh border. Our Sundarbans safari fits each day's route to the tides, with a private guide aboard.

Climb the watchtowers

At several camps a tower overlooks a freshwater pond where spotted deer, wild boar and crocodiles drink and, rarely, a tiger. Netidhopani adds the ruins of a temple about 400 years old.

Walk the canopy and the mud trail

At Dobanki, about two hours' boating beyond Sajnekhali, a raised walkway of about 400 metres crosses the mangrove canopy to a lookout tower. Burirdabri, the camp furthest east, has a mud walk among crabs and snails, a caged trail and a tower facing Bangladesh across the Raimangal.

Watch for wildlife from the deck

Scan the mudbanks for estuarine crocodiles and water monitors, and the wider channels for Gangetic and Irrawaddy dolphins. Keep quiet: the reserve asks for silence in the forest, and our safari for no flash near the watchtowers.

See crocodiles and terrapins being bred

Sajnekhali keeps a crocodile pond and breeds the critically endangered northern river terrapin beside its Mangrove Interpretation Centre. Bhagabatpur, the state's one crocodile project, hatches young crocodiles and terrapins; it is reached most easily from Namkhana.

Choosing between our tours and experiences

Ours is one experience, the boat safari, listed under wildlife safaris in Sundarbans, and slow travel: usually two to three days, with nights on board or at a riverside lodge, after a road transfer from Kolkata. Choose it for the mangroves and birds; for a likelier tiger, see the jeep-safari parks in our tiger park comparison.

When to go for these

Our safari's main season is roughly October to March, when January nights in Kolkata average about 14 °C by IMD's figures. Before the monsoon, the reserve notes, cyclones build over the Bay of Bengal, and from June to September heavy rain roughens the water, and some routes and lodges cut back or shut.

Rules in the tiger reserve

Three rules bind every visitor. Permission to enter comes from the reserve, whose Field Director's office in Canning and offices at Sonakhali, Bagna and Sajnekhali issue it; our safari arranges it. Only registered tourist boats are admitted, and each must carry one of the reserve's eco-guides, arranged by the boat, who explains the rules.