‘Daredevils’ is how one could describe the men of the Sundarbans. They wade through marshy, murky waters teeming with crocodiles, snakes, and pneumatophores (the spiky roots of the mangroves) — the Sundarbans are one of the world’s largest mangrove forests, spanning an area of 10,277 sq km — to fetch a coveted prize, which in this part of the world is honey.

The sticky elixir is their main source of livelihood, contributing to a major portion of the global demand.

But, while one eye is on the water, the other constantly scans the swamp bank. In the delta, a pair of green eyes and a flash of yellow and black equates to a death sentence. And the locals have taken it upon themselves to forewarn visitors; Mumbai native Neeti Goel (48) was no exception. In 2022, during her first trip to the archipelago, she was stunned to hear that the tiger widow population (women whose husbands were killed by tigers) stood at over 3,000.

“Why do you still go into the jungles if you know there are tigers there?” she asked.

“How else can we collect the honey? If we don’t sell honey, we won’t earn. Either the tiger will kill us or hunger will.” The statement stayed with her.

The beast that parades the waters

Picture an expanse of land with a pretty interplay of rivers and mangrove forests, visited by over 260 bird species, dolphins, and river terrapins. Elsewhere in the world, a horizon like this one would probably invite exploration, but in the Sundarbans, another story is unfolding. In 2010, Chiranjib, a project officer with WWF-India’s Sundarbans team, was sailing near Phiri Khali in the buffer zone of the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve when he first spotted a tiger — but not any ordinary one.

This one’s disposition seemed at odds with its surroundings. “It was swimming fast, much faster than I have seen any human swim,” Chiranjib recounted in a WWF report. A deeper dive into the tiger’s ecological adaptations points to its webbed toes, which act as natural paddles, catapulting the animal to the island which is home to the tribes.

In the Sundarbans, the dark brings with it worry for the safety of the moulis (

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