Rishikonda Beach (Vizag)

Coringa Wildlife Sanctuary

The tide runs this place. The forest floods at least twice a day, and the mangroves hold themselves clear of the water on a tangle of stilt-like prop roots that slows the current, drops sediment and builds the mud you are standing over. It is an estuary near Kakinada, the third largest stretch of mangrove in India, with 24 mangrove species and more than 120 kinds of bird, among them the critically endangered white-backed and long-billed vultures. Those two are rare enough that seeing either is luck, not planning. Come for the birds and the shape of the forest; nothing here is dramatic.