My Maiden Trip ǀ to Sunderbans 2025 ǀ Quest for the ǀ Swamp Tiger #sundarban #wildlife #photography

In this video, I have shared my experience of my first visit to the Sundarban Tiger Reserve, which is the largest mangrove forest. The Sundarbans is a complex eco system shared between India and Bangladesh. Sundarban literally means beautiful forest. But it gets its name from the sundari trees, which were once a predominantly growing mangrove tree species found in the Sundarbans but are gradually declining and are now classified as endangered. It is home to the Royal Bengal Tiger, also called the swamp tigers as they are the only mangrove dwelling tigers in the world. Those in the Sundarbans are comparatively smaller than their counterparts on the mainland. Muddy soil, sharp pneumatophores, tides and saline water. These swamp tigers have adapted to all. And they are excellent swimmers. Compared to tigers on mainland, tiger sighting in the Sundarbans is rare. Not just the swamp tiger, these mangroves are home to diverse species of birds, reptiles and mammals as well, of which we saw a few. Swamp tigers continue to be the top predators in the Sundarbans, followed by the salt water crocodiles, which can be counted as one of the largest living reptiles in the world. The animal human conflict in the Sundarbans is high. The main livelihood of the local inhabitants is fishing, honey collection, etc., that inevitably takes them to tiger territory. These fishermen go in parties of 3-4 men and venture into the many channels that crisscross through the main waterways. Sometimes they are lucky when they only come face to face with a tiger and nothing much happens. But there are instances when a tiger grabs a fisherman from behind and takes him into the forest as its next meal. Sometimes relatives brave all danger and venture into the forest to bring back the remains of the dead fisherman to perform the last rites. Ours was a 2 days trip, which may be considered too short considering that the wild is uncertain. We started from Kolkata on the evening of 28th of January, 2025. We were seven of us, who were primarily photographers and our safari was planned on our friend Subit Kumar Mandal’s private boat. For the two nights that we were there, we stayed over at a budget hotel on the island of Pakhiralay, which is one of the 52 inhabited islands of the Sundarbans. Tiger topped our bucket list during those two days. But the highlight of our trip was a crested serpent eagle with a kill, which undoubtedly looked like a snake. However, when our guide scrutinized the pictures taken, he confirmed that it was an eel and not a snake. The rest of the day was more or less uneventful except for some whimbrels, sandpipers and kingfisher species that we sighted. On day 2, we kept being hopeful about sighting a tiger. We began our day with the sighting of a black capped kingfisher, and saw a crocodile crossing from one bank to the other and another one that gradually entered waters as the tide rose. Macaque monkey, spotted deer, white bellied sea eagle, were some other species we sighted. While we waited, we heard bone chilling stories from our boatman and the cook on board, how tigers stalk boats, grab unsuspecting fishermen and drag them into the thick forest. The wild is unpredictable. Till the end, the swamp tiger remained elusive.