Tourists visiting the Sundarbans have once again caught a rare glimpse of a Royal Bengal Tiger. On Saturday morning, a group of visitors at the Harbaria Eco-Tourism Center in the East Sundarbans spotted a large tiger sitting on the foot trail. The tourists filmed the majestic animal from a distance using their mobile phones. Later, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of the East Sundarbans Division, shared the 29-second video on social media.
The video shows a massive Royal Bengal Tiger sitting calmly in the middle of the foot trail. After remaining still for a short while, the tiger slowly began to walk along the path.
K.M. Ramzan Ali Kanan, Acting Officer of the Harbaria Eco-Tourism Center, said that the tourists encountered the tiger while walking along the trail. “The tiger sat for a while before we safely drove it back into the forest,” he said.
Divisional Forest Officer Rezaul Karim Chowdhury stated that Harbaria Eco-Tourism Center is one of the most popular attractions in the Sundarbans, drawing hundreds of local and foreign tourists every day. “However, seeing a tiger from such close range is an extremely rare event,” he noted.
He explained that the Harbaria region lies close to the core tiger habitat of the Sundarbans, which occasionally leads to such sightings. “We have taken extra precautions to ensure the safety of all tourists visiting the area,” he added.
This is not the first time tourists have encountered a tiger in the East Sundarbans this year. On February 18, visitors in a tourist vessel named The Sail witnessed a tiger crossing the Boro Kotka canal in the Sharankhola Range near the Bay of Bengal. The tiger crossed the waterway and disappeared into the dense forest.
Earlier, on January 19, a group of tourists aboard the MV Alaska witnessed three tigers near the Betmor area of the Kotka Sanctuary in the Sundarbans. During that rare encounter, one tiger was seen attacking another and knocking it into the river, a moment captured in photos and videos that went viral on social media.
According to the 2018 tiger census, the Sundarbans was home to 114 tigers. The latest count in 2024 recorded an increase, bringing the total to 125—an addition of 11 tigers over six years, marking a positive sign for the conservation of this endangered species.
