Sundarbans

Sundarbans, India

A wooden boat prow leads into a golden sunrise over a tidal mangrove channel in the Sundarbans.

The world's largest mangrove forest, a tidal maze of channels shared by India and Bangladesh, and home to tigers.

The place

The Sundarbans is a mangrove delta at the head of the Bay of Bengal, where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers reach the sea and spread into a web of channels. It straddles the border. The Indian part lies in West Bengal, in the South and North Parganas districts, while the larger share, around the Khulna Division, is in Bangladesh. Across the whole delta the forest covers roughly 10,277 km, which is why it is usually called the world's largest mangrove forest. It is not one unbroken wall of trees. Dense closed mangrove sits beside open forest, farmland on higher ground, mudflats and bare patches of sand, and all of it is cut through by tidal streams that rise and fall with the sea.

Two tree species dominate: sundri, which is the most abundant, and gewa. The waterways support a surprising range of wildlife, from spotted deer and many birds to the Bengal tiger, which is rarely seen but is the reason many people come.

People live here too. The population is over 4 million, mostly in villages on the forest's edge, where rice and vegetables are grown on land that floods in the monsoon. The delta is also exposed. Cyclone Sidr in 2007 damaged a large part of the forest, and Cyclone Aila in 2009 caused heavy loss of life. Rising salt in the water, linked to sea-level rise and less fresh water from upstream, is changing which trees thrive. Visit with that in mind. This is a working landscape under pressure, not a museum.

Its story

The Sundarbans has been lived around for a very long time. Settlement here goes back to the Mauryan era, and folklore points to an abandoned city in the Baghmara forest block, linked to Chand Sadagar, a figure from Bengali legend. Archaeologists have also excavated the remains of an early medieval town at Kapilmuni, just north of the forest in Bangladesh. Under the Mughals, local rulers leased out tracts of forest for new settlements, so the edges of the delta were cleared and farmed piece by piece.

The British East India Company gained proprietary rights over the area in 1757 and had it mapped by 1764. Systematic forest management, though, came much later. The first forest division with jurisdiction over the Sundarbans was set up in 1869, and in 1875 a large part of the mangroves was declared reserved forest under the Indian Forest Act. The remainder followed a year later, and the forest passed from civil district administration to the Forest Department. A division based in what is now Khulna followed in 1879, and foresters soon began writing management plans for the timber and fuel the forest supplied.

That history explains much of the present. The forest was valued for its wood long before anyone thought of it as a refuge for tigers, and the boundaries drawn in the nineteenth century still shape where villages, farms and protected land meet today. The modern story is one of cyclones, salinity and the slow search for a balance between livelihoods and wildlife.

What to see

Culture

In the Sundarbans, you are a guest in other people's working landscape. Many villages depend on fishing, crab catching, honey collection and farming on land that floods, and daily life follows the tides. Bengali is the everyday language on the Indian side, and Bangla is spoken across the border, so a few words of greeting go a long way. Hospitality is generous, and people are usually glad to talk about their work and their homes. Religious life is mixed, with Hindu and Muslim communities living side by side, and shrines sit near the water on both sides. Expect to be asked for small tips at jetties and by boat operators, so carry small notes in cash rather than large ones. Forest rules protect both the wildlife and the people who enter the forest for honey and fish, so follow your guide and do not leave plastic on the boat or the banks. Ask before photographing anyone at home, especially women, and take your shoes off wherever others do.

What to wear

Traditional dress in the Sundarbans is Bengali. Women wear the sari, often in cotton or handloom silk, with the end draped over the shoulder. Lighter cotton saris are the everyday choice in the delta, while silk is kept for weddings and festivals. Men traditionally wear the dhoti or the lungi, a checked cloth tied at the waist, usually with a plain cotton shirt. Handloom weaving, using locally grown cotton, has long been part of village life across West Bengal and Bangladesh.

What people wear now is more mixed. In the villages you will see saris and lungis alongside jeans, T-shirts and school uniforms for children. Younger men wear trousers and shirts, and many women wear the salwar kameez, which is practical on wet ground.

For a visitor, the sensible choice is light, loose, long-sleeved cotton in neutral colours, which keeps off sun and mosquitoes. Long trousers or a long skirt suit village visits better than shorts, and a shawl or scarf covers the shoulders at religious sites. Pack closed shoes or sandals with grip for the jetties and slippery mud, and bring a wide-brimmed hat and a light rain layer for the monsoon months.

What to eat

Plan it

Best time. November to February, when the days are cool and dry and the water is calmer for boat trips. June to September is the monsoon, when much of the delta is underwater and storms are a real risk.

How long. 2–3

Getting there. Fly to Kolkata, then drive south to the jetties at Godkhali or Canning and board a licensed boat into the forest. On the Bangladesh side, travel is by road and launch from Khulna.

Budget. mid

Tips

Etiquette

Nearby

Sources