Reading the Tides in the Sundarbans

The Sundarbans is not a place you enter — it is a place that decides whether to admit you. Every channel changes with the tide, and every tide is a negotiation between the moon and the meltwater of the Himalayas.

Our head naturalist, Ranjit, has spent thirty-one years reading these waters. He can tell from the colour of the silt whether we should push deeper into the Katka creeks or hold back at the outer sanctuary. He listens for the alarm call of the spotted deer and the sharp whistle of the whimbrel — two of the earliest signs that a tiger has moved into the treeline.

This is what a slow expedition looks like: a lot of waiting, a lot of listening, and the occasional astonishment.