Sundarbans

The Sundarbans, spread across the great delta where the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, is the largest mangrove forest in the world — a vast, watery wilderness of tidal creeks, mudflats, and dense salt-tolerant forest of more than 78 mangrove species, shared between India and Bangladesh and protected on the Indian side as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

• It is, above all, the kingdom of the Royal Bengal tiger: the Sundarbans holds one of the largest tiger populations in India, and its tigers are famously adapted to this amphibious world, strong swimmers that cross the wide channels and have earned a legendary, fearsome reputation.
• Spotting one is a matter of patience and luck, but the journey itself is the reward, for the Sundarbans is explored entirely by boat — there are no roads into the core — drifting through narrow mangrove channels past saltwater crocodiles basking on the banks, spotted deer and wild boar at the water's edge, monitor lizards on the mudbanks, and a wealth of birds from kingfishers to the rare masked finfoot.
• Safaris run from the river jetties at Godkhali and Gosaba to a network of watchtowers and forest stations — Sajnekhali (the entry point, with its mangrove interpretation centre and the Bonbibi shrine to the forest's guardian deity), Sudhanyakhali (the best-known spot for tiger sightings, overlooking a freshwater pond), Dobanki (with its raised canopy walk), and Netidhopani.
• The riverside villages of the delta, with their mud embankments, honey-collectors, and the folk theatre of the Bonbibi legend, give the Sundarbans a human story as compelling as its wildlife.
• For vegetarian travellers, the boat and lodge packages cater easily: the on-board kitchens serve Bengali vegetarian fare — luchi with aloor dom, ghugni, mixed-vegetable labra, rice and dal, and Bengali sweets like rosogolla and mishti doi.
• The best season is November to February.