Three men sit shoulder to shoulder inside a narrow wooden patrol boat as it moves through a winding creek in the Sundarbans. 

Sheets of monsoon rain blur the mangroves behind them as they patrol one of the many waterways that separate villages from the Sundarbans tiger habitat.

Speaking to The Better Indiafrom the middle of the creek during one such patrol, the men keep scanning both banks on the sides. On one side of the creek lies a cluster of homes protected by nylon fencing. And across the water begins the tiger's world.

The distance between them is barely a few dozen metres. Actually so small that, during low tide, it appears almost walkable.

"Nodir opare bagh, epare amra, thakte toh hobei ekshathe" (The tiger lives on that side of the river. We live on this side. We have to coexist)," says Pintu Mondal, a member of the Primary Response Team (PRT) of the Wildlife Trust of India(WTI), speaking to The Better India as the boat continues its patrol through the rain.

He watches the opposite bank and smiles.

In the Sundarbans, that coexistence is practically a daily operation.

But a decade or two ago, if a tiger entered a village, the first reaction would have been how not to get killed, or how to kill the tiger before it killed someone else.

A landscape where rivers decide everything

The Sundarbans Delta stretches across nearly 10,000 sq km of India and Bangladesh, making it one of the world's largest contiguous mangrove ecosystems and one of the highest-priority Tiger Conservation Units globally.

Around 40 percent of the delta lies in India, while the remaining mangroves are in Bangladesh. 

The landscape is threaded together by hundreds of rivers, creeks, and estuaries formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna river systems.

This is also home to the largest single population of Royal Bengal tigers.

On the Indian side alone, the 2022 All India Tiger Estimation recorded an estimated 101 tigers with a density of 4.27 tigers per 100 sq km.

But these are not the tigers most people imagine.

They are smaller than their mainland counterparts, with adult males typically weighing between 97 and 115 kilograms.

Generations of living in saline marshes have shaped them into powerful swimmers capable of crossing tidal rivers with ease. Their coats often appear darker and glossier.

So, what makes a tiger rescue in the Sundarbans so different from almost every other rescue operation?

"For us, these rivers are roads. For the tigers too, these are roads.", Pintu Mondal answers.

And that changes everything.

In the world's largest mangrove forest, the only mangrove habitat of the Royal Bengal tiger,  there are no forest tracks to follow, no dry ground to chase across. Here, a tiger can swim across a creek with the tide and find itself in the middle of a village.

To understand what really happens next, The Better India sat down with the people behind these rescues, reconstructing — minute by minute — what it takes to guide a tiger safely back home.

Minute 1: Someone spots the pugmarks

The first sign may be fresh pugmarks outside a cowshed. Dogs barking before sunrise. 

Someone returning from the field spots movement near a bamboo grove. 

Word spreads. The village informs the Forest Department.

The police are alerted.

Members of the Primary Response Team (PRT), trained local volunteers supported through Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), and other such organisations begin moving towards the location.

At this point, everyone knows the first objective, which is simply to guide the tiger back into the forest.

Minute 30: The exits are planned before anyone moves

The Sundarbans cannot be treated like a mainland forest. Every creek, embankment, and mudflat changes with the tide.

"If the tiger has entered from the river, we don't close that side," Samrat Paul, Field Officer for WTI's Sundarban Tiger Project, explains.

"If we push it from the village, it should have an option to swim........

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