How I get to see so many tigers in Sundarban!

Before I even thought about exploring Sundarban tigers, I tried to understand Bengal Tiger as a species first. For that I visited several Tiger Reserves of India like Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Corbett, Kaziranga, Tadoba, Bandipur, Nagarhole, Mudumalai etc. It took me 9 years of exploration to see tiger for the first time in the wild. It was in 2009 at Bandipur TR, Karnataka. After that I was fortunate enough to follow them for the next 5 years before seeing the first Sundarban tiger of my life.

Time in the Forest:

I visited Sundarban first in 2008. It was a brief visit and was not much wildlife oriented. My stay was at Sajnekhali Tourist Lodge and did just one morning cruise to Sudhanyakhali watch tower. On my 2nd visit in 2011, I got a proper chance to see the forest for 2 full days. But until 2014 my visits were very infrequent. From August 2014 onwards I have been spending a lot of time here. On an average I used to be in Sundarban for more than half a month. There were times when I stayed here for more than a month at a stretch which has helped me to understand this forest better, much required to track tigers here.

Understanding the Forest:

During my initial visits I got a notion that seeing a tiger in these mysterious mangroves was next to impossible. But when a friend of mine who is not that much into wildlife, saw a tiger and got a mobile photograph, I started to believe that tigers can be seen here too. And fortunately, in my next trip itself I met Nityananda Choukidar who supported my thought and the exploration began.

Every forest has its own set of rules as far as sightings are considered. Sundarban too has its own. The trick was to find it out. Sundarban Tiger Reserve is a maze of forested islands which are ruled by the tidal water which come from the sea. There are 2 high tides and 2 low tides in a day at an interval of 6 hours each. The tide level and timings change every day. During the low tides the mudflats get exposed and that is when one needs to look around for the clues.

As the tide level (amount of rise and fall of water) changes everyday, there are certain periods (6-7 days stretch) in a month which is considered favorable for sightings. That period is locally called Mora Kotal or low tide times. The rise and fall is minimal and hence the current too. This period falls almost mid-way between the Amavasya (New Moon) and Purnima (Full Moon). During this stretch one gets the maximum amount of time to explore this forest with the mudflats exposed. Each month has 2nos. of Mora Kotals. Sundarban is open round the year and park visit timings are sunrise to sunset. However, it is a complete myth that sightings will not happen during the Bhora Kotals or high tide times.

The Boat and Crew:

Now this is very interesting. For exploring Sundarban from a wildlife point of view all kinds of boats/ships cruising here are not advisable. A medium sized 4-cylinder geared boat with a good amount of space in the front of upper deck is the best bet. At times it is extremely needed to move the boat back and forth within, say... a few minutes. The boat should have space for overnight stay as staying in hotels/resorts wastes a lot of time. Most of the land-accommodations are quite far away from the various entry/exit points of the park. The boat I use has 4 beds in the lower deck with attached western-style toilet and a small bath. A boat-stay allows much flexibility as one just needs to come out from the entry/exit point and anchor by the nearest human habitation. It's difficult to predict well in advance that where exactly the sightings can happen, making it difficult to decide on the land-accommodation. There are 6 entry/exit points for tourists namely Sarakkhali, Sudhanyakhali, Khonakhali, Dobanki, Nobanki and Netidhopani. The highlighted ones are the conventional ones used by most of the boats.

Another important point which needs to be noted here is that one needs a boat where the owner is more interested in providing a good service rather than concentrating on how to save fuel. My exploration routes are always planned depending on the sighting chances, rather than the favorable current to save fuel. This definitely has a big financial impact as I need to pay much more for the boat than the conventional charges. I am lucky that owner of Sundarban Safari boat, Sanjoy Mondal has never bothered about the fuel expenses. He has always told me "Dada; don't worry about the fuel, but don't come back without seeing a tiger".

A good crew is also important. The main boat-man (Sareng) not only needs to be well aware of the navigation and local conditions but also has to be alert in  the forest for there are too many signs; as in, the forest speaks to you. Catching those signs is very important, missing any of those can cost you the chance of a potential sighting. Same applies to the rest of the crew members too and I feel I am fortunate to have excellent and supportive crew members.

Group Size:

I always prefer small groups. Ideal is 3-4 people in a boat along with the crew members. More people means more chaos and during a sighting everybody will stand in front of the boat-man making it difficult for him to maneuver. 

Binocular:

A good binocular is a must for exploring Sundarban. Most of the times while cruising in big rivers one needs to have the vision of a raptor i.e. to have a keen vision in order to cover vast expanses. So it is important to observe constantly what is there far away & near and be as patient as a vulture. It is also necessary to study the footprints minutely from the boat as getting down on the forested land is not permitted in Sundarban. There are numerous smaller creeks where tourists are not allowed to enter. A binocular helps one to scan those from far away distance.

Tiger Watching:

Tigers in Sundarban can be seen either from the boat or from a watch tower. Watch towers are preferred mostly during the early mornings and late evenings or during the high tides when the mudflats are submerged. I generally don't go to the watch towers unless I get some clue that a movement is happening near it. Speculating the movement of a tiger is very tricky as one needs to have the entire map of the tourism area embedded in the mind along with years of experience.

Most of my sightings have happened from the boat itself.  The movement is restricted to the wider rivers/canals so one needs to understand about why does a tiger come at the bank of such a big water body? No, they don't come here just to drink. There are plenty of options available inside the forest for that. They go there for 2 reasons mostly:

1. Crossing the river and moving to the adjacent island
2. Walking along the bank and patroling the territory

What I have generally noticed is that the tigers spend considerable amount of time on the bank before getting into the water to cross. I don't know why they do that, but my speculation says that they scan the entire area for possible situations before getting into the water, a place where it is extremely vulnerable. That is why it is extremely important to keep scanning both the banks with a binocular while still inside the forest.

Forest Signs:

Like any other forest, here also I depend on the footprints and the alarm calls. However, footprints are more reliable as only Spotted Deer / Rhesus Macaque are available in Sundarban as far as alarm calls are considered. Now, footprints on the mud-banks look completely different from that on game tracks of other parks in India. The legs go much deeper inside the soft soil making the footprints look like big holes. In fact, for an untrained eye it is extremely difficult to differentiate between a crab hole and a footprint.

There are ways to differentiate between an old footprint and a new one and this understanding comes from years of experience of seeing them. But to put it on paper, the fresh ones will have the following features:

• Whitish base (darkens with passage of time due to silt deposition)
• Sharp and well-defined edges (distorts with passage of time due to tide and wind)
• Little water inside (if it is extremely fresh where the dripping water from tiger's body has got accumulated)

With experience, it can also be predicted that how old the footprint is. But the point to be noted here is that factors change from season to season and from soil type to soil type. In winters, on a soft muddy soil a footprint might remain for 15-20 days whereas same would vanish in 2-3 days on a sandy bank. Again, footprints tend to remain for long time during the winters whereas vanishes quickly during the summers/monsoons.

During the Sighting:

When a sighting happens, I always ask my boat-man not to rush towards the tiger. It's always better to be at a distance as that allows it to be comfortable even in human presence. Believe me, once it is comfortable one can get to see it for a much longer duration. During one of my sightings we allowed the tiger to cross the canal comfortably rather than blocking its path and then it walked with us for the next 10 kilometers, 10 km.. hmm.. pretty great isn't it?

Conclusion:

Tiger sighting in Sundarban, like in any other forest, finally is a matter of luck. Even after following all these methods I have failed to see a single individual during a span of 8 months. But, during those eight months I had several narrow misses which made me more confident of the fact that at least the movements can be predicted. This is an extremely dense forest, hence one can search to the point where the tiger is but the "sighting" will always depend on the tiger's wish!

Power of a Sundarban Tiger

It had been almost 8 months and I was yet to get the next set of photographs of the swamp tiger. I was worried, but more than me it was my boatman Subrata Biswas who was worried like hell. It was such a condition that even with 104 fever and constant vomiting, he refused to leave the boat when I reached Sundarban on 24th Aug 2016 night. I didn't force him more. 4 days gone into the wilderness and still there were no signs of tigers. Subrata's condition, though, did not deteriorate but was not recovering either. At times he was shivering badly. As we has an alternate for him on the boat, we asked him to take rest for most of the time, along with medication.

28th Aug 2016 around 2pm when I was washing my hands downstairs prior to the lunch, heard some commotion on the top. It was obvious. Tiger was spotted. And the fever had vanished. Yes, you heard it right, the fever had just vanished within seconds. Subrata came back to 100% normalcy after that. A tiger sighting did successfully what dozes of medicine could not do!

The Sub-adult Male

We had been searching the tigers from 3 days. 2 set of footprints were seen entering Pirkhali 3 island by crossing the Sundarkhali river. So there was some hope that one among them might come out and try to cross over to another adjacent island. As planned, we just kept revolving around Pirkhali 3, looking out for some signs of movement. And on the 4th day we got this handsome sub-adult male sitting in the river bank!

This is how we saw him first

The Obedient Boy

After chasing the Water Monitor

Calm and Composed

Crossing the creek

Final look before vanishing into the thickets

This sighting last for almost 25 minutes. He was extremely cool with our presence as we never tried to breach his comfort zone. Only after the unsuccessful hunting attempt he planned to move inside. However, as expected we again saw him on the banks of Sundarkhali river. As soon as he saw us he moved back into the thickets. At that point we decided to move out and make opportunity for the other boat whom we had called there to see the tiger. And yes, they too got a glimpse and some images of this handsome boy.

Epic tiger sighting at Sundarban

It's not an everyday affair in Sundarban that one get to see a tiger for 4 and half hours. But when you have the blessings of Bonbibi and excellent tracking skills combined with the wholesome understanding of swamp tiger behavior, miracles happen.

It was 22nd December 2015 9:30am when we were about to come out of Sundorkhali and join Borogaji, we saw one boat already in front of us scanning the banks of Pirkhali 3. Instead of following the same path, I asked my sareng (boatman) to go to the other bank i.e. Panchamukhani 3 island. 9:55am and I suddenly saw a thin tree bending and the moment I moved my eyes below the tree, I saw 4 big fat white legs. "Tiger" I shouted in a very low voice and asked everybody to be ready. The big cat was moving in the same direction as that of our boat, so there was no need to turn back. The slow pace of our boat matched that of the tiger and within moments he was out in the open, peeping at us.

After looking at us for sometime, he started moving towards the Choragazi river. We knew that he would cross the river and our plan was to position the boat in the right place to capture some decent images.

As soon as we positioned our boat at the mouth of the river, he emerged out of the thickets, sat down to investigate the surroundings, snarled and got into the river. At a brisk pace, it took him just a minute to swim across the 50 foot wide river. He climbed onto the opposite bank i.e. Pirkhali 5 island, shook the water off his coat and moved into the thickets.

Few of us thought that the show is over. But NO. We know the behavior of these swamp tigers. They like to walk along the river bank and patrol their territory. As anticipated, we caught him again at the next canal.

After climbing up the bank, he started walking into the forest, still visible to us. All the cameras kept clicking some dream images.

Then we again saw him at the next canal. This and the one before were shallower canals, so neither did he wait to survey the surroundings before getting in, nor did he snarl before entering the water.

After crossing this canal, we expected him to cross the next one too. But out of the blue, while majestically striding through the grasslands, he turned around and started moving in the opposite direction. It was a peculiar behavior and we could not judge what this tiger was up-to. We thought that he probably wants to cross the big river and not to be a hindrance to his movement, we moved our boat back to give him sufficient space to make his crossing. However, that didn't happen and he moved back to his original path. Since our boat was further away, we could not reach the 3rd canal in time to capture his crossing.

At that very moment, we thought that we had lost the tiger. The forest was dense and he was not to be seen anywhere. We were in a dilemma whether to move forward or wait for him at that point. But then one of us suddenly whispered "there he is!" and he was there peeping out of the Hental (Phoenix paludosa) forest.

After this point we actually lost him. Forest was pretty dense and we could not judge his movement, as it seemed rather erratic. For almost 30 minutes we stood clueless, when a fishermen's boat shouted at us "Babu jachhen" (He is going) pointing their fingers towards the direction they saw him. And lo, we got him again. We now saw him cross a dry canal and noticed some elusive behavior. We saw him drinking the saline water from a small puddle but could not photograph it as only the rear half of the tiger was visible.

We caught him crossing another dry canal where he jumped across the mudflat. Our guest were delighted to capture some action packed moments on still film. In between, he took a few moments to stare at us too.

Thereafter, he rubbed his cheek and spray marked a Passur tree (Xylocarpus granatum). This was another unique behavior which I captured for the second time, in a short span of 3 months.

Now it was time for some rest. By this time, we had been accompanying him for almost 9-10 kms.  He selected an open spot near the bank and sat there for a while, surveying the surroundings.

We had noticed that he had a wound near the left eye. On closer inspection on our camera LCD, it was concluded that it was a healing wound and might not be a great threat. But it was our duty to inform the concerned department and so we did. After few moments he started moving again. This time he walked on the snake-roots, giving us some unique photography opportunities.

It was almost 1pm now and we had reached a place where all the boats from Dobanki will cross on their way back. Here the inevitable was bound to happen. Boats started flocking from all directions. Over 20 boats accumulated to catch a glimpse of the most elusive ghost of this mangrove forest.

However, the tiger didn't seem to be perturbed. He looked very hungry and all the boatmen kept their boats at a safe distance. Sundarban tigers have a history of preying on humans and it would be a walk in the park for this massive male to take one from the boat if they got too close. The tiger seemed to be at a strategic position too. Due to the low tide, boats were at a lower level and the tiger was higher. These agile cats can jump great lengths very easily.

It was almost 10-12 kms that this tiger had walked with us. During this time we were blessed with numerous opportunities to photograph him and his different behavior. Now it seemed he was tired and hence we too decided to leave him and move deeper into the forest to check out his other denizens.

Out of my 9 sightings (8 in 2015 itself) in Sundarban, this will remain etched in my memory for ever. Tiger sightings are rare here and most of them are nothing more than a fleeting glimpse. We were lucky on this occasion that this elusive ghost blessed us with so many wonderful moments, and that too for such a long duration. This sighting has made me fall in love with these mysterious mangroves in a much deeper and more meaningful manner. Keep following my blogs for more interesting bytes from this less explored wildlifing paradise.