All activities / Wildlife Safaris / Sundarbans
Wildlife Safaris in Sundarbans
The Bangladeshi share of the Sundarbans, the world's largest continuous mangrove forest at the mouth of the Ganges delta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site of tidal channels, mudflats and salt-tolerant forest. It is the last stronghold of the Royal Bengal tiger and is reached only by boat from Khulna or Mongla.
Why here
The Sundarbans is the great wildlife journey of Bangladesh, a maze of tidal rivers and mangrove that shelters the largest surviving population of the Royal Bengal tiger, a swimming, salt-water tiger found nowhere else quite like this. You do not drive here, you go by boat, sleeping aboard as the vessel works south through the channels from Khulna or Mongla into the forest. Days are spent on small craft nosing up narrow creeks at dawn, walking the boardwalk at Karamjal, and watching from the deck for spotted deer at the waterline, estuarine crocodiles, rhesus macaques, water monitors and the wild pigs the tigers hunt. Big cats are rarely seen and never guaranteed, so the reward is the whole living system: the world's biggest mangrove, its birdlife of kingfishers and eagles, and the sense of being deep inside a forest that floods twice a day. This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the country's flagship natural experience.
Best months
The tourist season runs from about October to March, when the weather is dry and cooler and the boats operate; the monsoon months are hot, wet and largely closed to cruising. Sightings are down to luck and patience, with deer, crocodiles, monkeys, monitor lizards and abundant birds seen on most trips and tigers only occasionally. Forest department permits and an armed forest guard are compulsory and are arranged by the operator, and the itinerary follows fixed wildlife points such as Kotka, Kochikhali, Hiron Point and Karamjal.
Getting there & around
Almost everyone visits on a multi-day liveaboard cruise that starts and ends at Khulna or Mongla in the southwest, reached by road or train from Dhaka or by domestic flight to Jessore. The boat is your hotel, transport and dining for two or three nights, with smaller craft carried aboard for the creek excursions. Operators handle the forest department permits, entry fees and the mandatory armed guard, so the simplest and by far the most common way in is a booked cruise rather than independent travel.
Skill levels: beginner
Schools & guides (2)
Nijhoom Tours
OutfitterNijhoom Tours is a Dhaka-based operator running Sundarbans wildlife trips since 2012, using small-group wooden houseboats out of Khulna or Mongla rather than crowded party boats. It is a member of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (membership 580) with English-speaking naturalist guides, and holds a TripAdvisor Hall of Fame award. Its three-day, two-night route works the creeks around Kotka, Kochikhali and Karamjal for tiger, spotted deer and estuarine crocodile.
Pugmark Tours and Travels
OutfitterPugmark Tours and Travels is a specialist operator that works exclusively in the Sundarbans, running small-group wildlife cruises on its own houseboats, the M.L. Bawali and the smaller M.B. Mawali. Trips push into the mangrove channels to watch for Royal Bengal tiger, spotted deer, estuarine crocodile and the Irrawaddy dolphins of the delta, and the outfit also supports birdwatching, photography and film expeditions. Booking is direct with the operator rather than through a platform.