Beach, Bagerhat
Kochikhaliকচিখালী
- Time needed
- A morning, as part of a cruise.
- best months
- Nov–Feb
- Cost
- Included in a cruise; the forest rest house is about ৳3,000 a room (৳5,000 for foreigners), booked through the Forest Department.
The easternmost forest station of the Sundarbans, a few kilometres from Katka: a rest house, a beach where the Baleshwar meets the sea, and some of the best tiger country in the forest.
Plan your visit
- Best time
- A winter morning, with the tide out on the beach.
At a glance
- Rest house
- Four rooms, Forest Department
- River
- The Baleshwar estuary, the sanctuary's eastern edge
About
Kochikhali is Katka's quieter twin. It stands at the eastern corner of the sanctuary, on the creek of the same name, where the forest meets the Baleshwar estuary and the open sea, and cruises that come to Katka usually spend a morning here too. There is a forest rest house of four rooms that groups can book through the Forest Department, a jetty, and a trail through grassland and keora forest to a long sandy beach at the mouth of the river.
The open grass here draws deer, and the deer draw tigers; guards will show you the tracks, and this is the stretch of coast where sightings, when they happen at all, happen most. Walk only with the armed guard and in a group. Like Katka it is an all-day sail from Mongla and reached only on a cruise; the two together, with a dawn at one and a beach at the other, are the standard three-day itinerary and the reason to come.
Getting there: By cruise launch only, a few kilometres east of Katka along the coast; a day's sailing from Mongla.
Things to do
- Walk the grassland to the beach at low tide, behind the guard.
- Sit on the jetty at dusk; deer come down to the creek.
Good to know
- This is the forest's most-reported tiger stretch; obey the guard without discussion.
- Book the rest house weeks ahead in winter.
