Katka Sea Beach (কটকা সমুদ্র সৈকত)

Katka Sea Beach is a forest station and beach in the Sharankhola range of the Sundarbans, Bagerhat district, Bangladesh, inside the Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary. It suits wildlife watchers on a licensed launch tour from Khulna or Mongla who want to see spotted deer, monkeys and the open Bay of Bengal.

On Katka creek, 90 km by water from Mongla

Katka sits on the bank of the Katka creek where it meets the Bay of Bengal, about 90 km by water from Mongla. It falls within the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, inscribed by UNESCO in 1997 and covering 139,500 hectares on the Bangladesh side, and within the Sundarbans Reserved Forest, a Ramsar wetland since May 1992. The Sundarbans East sanctuary is one of three in the Bangladesh Sundarbans, set up in 1977.

Forest office, watch tower and trail to the sand

Katka has been a main stop for boat tours for decades. A forest office and rest house stand near the jetty, and a four-storey watch tower about 40 feet high looks over the canopy and meadows. A trail runs through trees and grassland to the beach, locally called Jamtola, a long, clean strand that continues toward Kochikhali. Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 hit this coast hard, and dead trees from the storm still line the walk.

Spotted deer, macaques and crocodiles

The grassland and keora forest hold large herds of spotted deer, which graze in the open in early morning and late afternoon. Rhesus macaques follow them to share fallen leaves. Wild boar, waders and kingfishers are common, saltwater crocodiles bask on creek banks in winter, and tiger pugmarks are often found on the sand. Bangladesh's 2015 tiger census counted 106 tigers in its part of the forest.