Two weeks in the Sundarbans with the Mawali honey hunters

The Sundarbans honey season opens on the first of April and runs for roughly six weeks. Collectors — called Mawali — buy a permit from the Forest Department, form groups of six or seven, and go in by boat.

How the honey is found

There is no map. The group spreads out through the mangrove, watching the flight lines of bees returning to the hive. Follow enough of them and they converge on a comb, often hanging from a low branch over water.

The bees are Apis dorsata, the giant rock bee, and a disturbed colony is genuinely dangerous. The Mawali carry bundles of smouldering leaves to drive the bees off the comb, cut the honey-bearing section, and deliberately leave the brood behind so the colony can rebuild.

Why Khalisha is the prize

The Khalisha flower blooms early in the season and produces a pale, thin, intensely floral honey. Later in the season the bees move to Goran and Keora flowers, which give a darker and heavier honey. Serious buyers pay a premium for the first ten days.

What we pay and why

The forest is not a safe workplace. Tiger attacks still kill collectors every season. We buy at above the local trader rate — because the alternative is a supply chain where the person taking the risk earns the least.

What happens next

Honey comes out of the forest in tins, unfiltered, still holding comb fragments. We settle it, strain it cold through mesh, test it, and bottle it. No heating at any stage. What you open is very close to what came off the branch.