The story of honey hunting in the Sundarbans of Bangladesh

Navigating through dense mangroves in search of bee hives requires a high level of skill and experience The Sunday Times

Tuhin Sarwar, Babgladesh

The forest itself is a challenge, requiring a high level of skill and experience to navigate through the dense mangroves in search of the beehives. The forest itself is a challenge

Navigating through dense mangroves in search of bee hives requires a high level of skill and experience For generations, villagers living around the Sundarbans have been collecting wild honey every year from April to June

Finding honey in mangroves is not an easy task. The forest itself is a challenge, requiring a high level of skill and experience to navigate through the dense mangroves in search of bee hives

Also, there are poisonous snakes inside the forest. Saltwater crocodiles live in the murky waters of the Sundarbans. The biggest threat to mangroves is the Bengal tiger. Just four days ago, a honey collector was killed by a tiger in Satkhira range of Sundarbans

In a separate incident two days later, another maual (honey collector) was injured in a tiger attack, but was lucky enough to be rescued by fellow mauals.

This year I had the opportunity to visit the honey hunters and see the process of collecting wild honey

We boarded a tourist ship from Khulna on the afternoon of March 30 and started our journey towards the western part of the Sundarbans

After traveling for six-seven hours we halted at Nalian for the night

The next morning we started the journey again and in the afternoon we reached Burigoalini in Shyamnagar Upazila of Satkhira

Later in the afternoon we met the village honey collectors who were preparing for their honey hunting trip. We saw their traditional prayers which are held for the well being and success of the honey collectors

On the morning of 1 April, we visited a forest range office where honey collectors had gathered to collect their passes. About 200 boats collected passes, with seven to eight people in each boat. After getting the pass, the honey gatherers started running towards the forest in search of the hive

We follow a group of honey collectors to see the collection process. We cruised for about two hours, then stopped at a canal and entered the jungle with honey collectors. We walked for about two hours through dense mangroves, canals

Meanwhile the honey gatherers found two hives but they were not harvestable so we returned to our containers. In the afternoon we followed the honey gatherers again but were suddenly attacked by bees while getting off the boat

We panicked and quickly got into the boat trying to escape from the place. But our efforts were not successful as some of our teammates had several bee stings. So, we had to come back to the launch

Early the next morning, we re-entered the forest after the honey gatherers, who split into groups to find as many hives as possible. They were using various shouts and buffalo horns to communicate

After walking for 10 to 15 minutes through the dense mangroves, they found a beehive on a tree branch. We covered ourselves as much as we could and carefully approached the hive.

There were thousands of wild bees in that hiveHoney gatherers collect some leaves to produce smoke and make torches out of it. Once the smoke forced the bees to fly, one of them quickly climbed the tree and began to cut the hive

They collect the pieces in a bamboo basket. Although the smoke drove the bees away, some stayed and attacked some of us. Then we quickly left the place and started searching again

Our search continued until noon and we found three more hives. During the search, the honey collectors were shouting and bursting firecrackers to scare away the tigers in the area. At noon we returned to our ship.

But on our way to the ship, we met a group of fishermen who told us that they had seen a tiger nearby that morningWe felt relieved that we didn’t encounter it and returned safely. After lunch we leave the honey collectors who will be in the forest for another 13 days in search of honey. We started our cruise in the afternoon and reached Khulna the next day

It was an amazing adventure to see the process of collecting wild honey so close. It was definitely an experience of a lifetime