Sundarbans is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the intersection of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans from the Hooghly River in India’s state of West Bengal to the Baleswar River in Bangladesh’s division of Khulna. It contains closed and open mangrove forests, land used for agricultural purposes, mudflats, and barren land, and is intersected by multiple tidal streams and channels.
Sundarban’s Protected Areas & Biodiversity
Four protected areas in the Sundarbans are enlisted as UNESCO World Heritage Sites, viz. Sundarbans National Park, Sundarbans West, Sundarbans South, and Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuaries. Despite these protections, the Indian Sundarbans were considered endangered in a 2020 assessment under the IUCN Red List of Ecosystems framework. The Sundarbans mangrove forest covers an area of about 10,000 km2 (3,900 sq mi), of which forests in Bangladesh’s Khulna Division extend over 6,017 km2 (2,323 sq mi) and in West Bengal, they extend over 4,260 km2 (1,640 sq mi) across the South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts. The most abundant tree species are sundri (Heritiera fomes) and gewa (Excoecaria agallocha). The forests provide habitat to 453 fauna wildlife, including 290 birds, 120 fish, 42 mammals, 35 reptiles, and eight amphibian species.
Difference Between Regular & Wildlife Trips in Sundarban
These are quite obvious information about Sundarban. Now in this article, I will tell you about the birdwatching trip to Sundarban. There are two types of trips in Sundarban.
1) Regular weekend trip
In this kind of trip you will enjoy the beauty of mangroves, calm water, plenty of authenticated Bengali cuisine along with Sorshe Ilish, Kakrar Jhal, and can enjoy the overall beauty of Sundarban. Forget tigers. You hardly can get a chance to have a glimpse of this beautiful animal. I will tell you why in this article.
2) Wildlife trip
Come on, Sundarban is the largest mangrove forest and a national park too! Don’t you want to have a look at its vivacious wildlife? I don’t think that doing a regular trip will be worth enough for a nature lover like you! You are a hard-core nature lover unless you won’t find my blog in the vast ocean of the internet. Lol!
I was very excited to visit Sundarban because it is the biggest mangroves in this world and being an intense nature lover and birdwatcher I always feel very excited about this place. Sundarban is the nearest mangrove forest to Kolkata. It was quite easy to visit there.
How to go to Sundarban:
This is a pretty simple and easy-to-go place from Kolkata. The simplest option is of course the train.
Get a train from Sealdah railway station and buy a ticket to Canning station. You can buy the direct ticket from your place too. It will be better to get a train as early as possible. You need to catch the train from Sealdah south section. Then take a trekker from outside the station and go directly to Gadkhali. You may enjoy the beautiful scenery of Matla river and the adjoining view of mangroves on the way.
Get down from the trekker and catch the boat from Gadkhali.
Special Tip: Try to plan your Sundarban trip in a group, so that you can share the boat fare. The more you can gather people, the more your per head cost will be decreased. If you are willing to take good wildlife photos, don’t increase the team size to more than ten-fifteen people.
Well, what if you are alone or just a couple, can’t you visit Sundarban? Yes, you can book the boat yourself without thinking of sharing. It is your money after all. Two people can book a boat. The cost will be more or less 5k/day except for food and stay. Otherwise, you can book with any trusted mangrove travel operator. They will arrange everything and can offer you a shared price. They may include you in their existing group. In that case, you may have to ride with other people.
I am putting some tour operators‘ names and phone numbers down below this article. I know them personally and went with them at different times. Most of them are efficient wildlife tour operators in Sundarban.
Now back to our trip story. From Gadkhali we took the boat. We went to Bali island via Amlamethi char. If you are doing a wildlife trip then staying at Bali island is preferable but otherwise, you can stay at Pakhiralay, Sajnekhali, etc.
You may also like: 12-things-you-must-know-before-visiting-kanha-national-park
Different packages of Sundarban trips offered by operators:
There are many different packages for the Sundarban trip. Costing will depend entirely on the character of the trip. I have tried to explain in my video why the trip costs are different. What are the parameters of the budget for Sundarban trips? Please watch my video to understand the whole process of budgeting minutely.
I was accompanied by wildlife enthusiasts. This was especially a birdwatching trip. There are many special birds which you can see even without binoculars. So a normal tourist can also enjoy the birdlife of Sundarban. If you have a telephoto lens or binoculars, then it will be great.
2 nights and 3 days Sundarban Trip itinerary
First day
We started from Kolkata and reached Bali island on the same day. We enjoyed breakfast with Bengali Luchi cholar dal, jilipi. Well, Bengali Jilipi is a bit different in style and texture than Jalebi. We had fried fish too after a few hours. Meanwhile, we have seen some birds and dolphins too.
After reaching Bali island we checked in to our homestay. It was Delta Eco Resort of conservationist Mr. Mantu Hait. Our double bedroom was big enough to accommodate me and my roommate. The dormitory condition was not as good as I have seen. Though one can stay there if you don’t have budget restraints.
We went to do some nocturnal birding at night. Sundarban at night was fierce because of the myths and real incidents of tiger encounters. There were several snakes and frogs too. The night was calm. One or two boats were standing still there on the dark river near the bank. The next side of the river has dense mangrove forests consisting of tigers and other mammals. A Large-tailed nightjar was calling continuously. That full moon night was tremendously beautiful and mysterious. Have you ever heard the barn owl calling in the mangrove night? This perfectly blends with the ambiance.
Second Day
The first day was spent mostly by coming to the resort. We did very little birding here. The second day was ideal for birding and tiger mapping. We got the permission from forest department and got a forest guide. He entered the jungle by boat under his direction. Sundarban is a heaven of birds. We found most of the beautiful kingfishers here except Ruddy kingfisher. Though we got its call, but couldn’t manage to get a sight. Here are some other kingfishers which we found in Sundarban.
Tiger was not that easy to find. Sometimes you may get a glimpse but couldn’t manage to get even a record shot. Mangrove tigers are pretty swift in their movement. They are furious and sometimes ended up being a man-eater.
In my youtube video I have told you the route. You can tell your boatman to go through that route and chances of getting birds may increase.
Third Day
Third day was our checkout day. It was raining from the morning. We managed to get into the boat. Today we will try to do some more wildlife. This day was not very good neither too bad.
We didn’t get any new bird but got very good crocodile shot. We got water monitor lizards several times. We got deer too.
After doing some wildlife we set sail to Gadkhali.
Here is a list of the birds which we get throughout the trip
Species Count
Red Junglefowl (Gallus gallus) 2
Spotted Dove (Streptopelia chinensis) 44
Yellow-footed Green-Pigeon (Treron phoenicopterus) 15
Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) 1
Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) 5
Little Swift (Apus affinis) 3
Asian Palm-Swift (Cypsiurus balasiensis) 1
White-breasted Waterhen (Amaurornis phoenicurus) 5
Pacific Golden-Plover (Pluvialis fulva) 5
Gray-headed Lapwing (Vanellus cinereus) 2
Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) 5
Eurasian Curlew (Numenius arquata) 5
Common Sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos) 12
Common Greenshank (Tringa nebularia) 1
Common Redshank (Tringa totanus) 2
Brown-headed Gull (Chroicocephalus brunnicephalus) 2
Lesser Adjutant (Leptoptilos javanicus) 3
Little Cormorant (Microcarbo niger) 6
Great Egret (Ardea alba) 9
Intermediate Egret (Ardea intermedia) 2
Indian Pond-Heron (Ardeola grayii) 4
Black-headed Ibis (Threskiornis melanocephalus) 3
Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) 1
Oriental Honey-buzzard (Pernis ptilorhynchus) 2
Crested Serpent-Eagle (Spilornis cheela) 2
Black Kite (Milvus migrans) 1
Brahminy Kite (Haliastur indus) 2
Spotted Owlet (Athene brama) 1
Common Kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) 6
Brown-winged Kingfisher (Pelargopsis amauroptera) 3
White-throated Kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis) 4
Black-capped Kingfisher (Halcyon pileata) 9
Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) 6
Pied Kingfisher (Ceryle rudis) 2
Green Bee-eater (Merops orientalis) 7
Coppersmith Barbet (Psilopogon haemacephalus) 1
Fulvous-breasted Woodpecker (Dendrocopos macei) 1
Black-rumped Flameback (Dinopium benghalense) 1
Rose-ringed Parakeet (Psittacula krameri) 128
Small Minivet (Pericrocotus cinnamomeus) 7
Black-hooded Oriole (Oriolus xanthornus) 2
Common Iora (Aegithina tiphia) 3
White-throated Fantail (Rhipidura albicollis) 2
Black Drongo (Dicrurus macrocercus) 1
Bronzed Drongo (Dicrurus aeneus) 3
Rufous Treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda) 1
Large-billed Crow (Indian Jungle) (Corvus macrorhynchos culminatus) 3
Common Tailorbird (Orthotomus sutorius) 2
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) 5
Red-vented Bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer) 2
Red-whiskered Bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus) 1
Greenish Warbler (Phylloscopus trochiloides) 1
Indian White-eye (Zosterops palpebrosus) 1
Common Myna (Acridotheres tristis) 4
Jungle Myna (Acridotheres fuscus) 6
Oriental Magpie-Robin (Copsychus saularis) 5
Pale-billed Flowerpecker (Dicaeum erythrorhynchos) 1
Purple Sunbird (Cinnyris asiaticus) 1
White Wagtail (Motacilla alba) 1
Some Sundarban Tour Operators
1) Dipankar Roy – Northeasttravels: +91.8972247306
2) Sundarban Delta Eco Tourism – Delta Cottage Mantu Hait: 9433669080
3) Zigzag India Tours – Soumya Kundu: +91 98307 69196
Loved all ur writeups..
Keep writing
Thank you very much 🙂
Thank you for showcasing the diverse flora and fauna that thrive in Sundarbans. Your post has deepened my appreciation for the incredible biodiversity of this enchanting place.
Thank you very much 🙂
Thank you very much 🙂