Sundarban is the Beautiful largest mangrove forest of the world
The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language (Shundor, "beautiful" and bon, "forest"). The name may have been derived from the Sundari trees (the mangrove species Heritiera fomes) that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers.
The Sundarbans (Pron:/ˈsʊndəˌbʌnz/) (Bengali: সুন্দরবন, Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The Sundarbans is a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering parts of Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat District in southwestern Bangladesh.
Located in Bangladesh, the Sundarbans borders the Sundarbans National Park in the Indian state of West Bengal. Sundarbans is divided into three protected forests in Bangladesh namely Sundarbans South, East and West Wildlife Sanctuary. This region is densely covered by mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the Bengal tiger.
Sundarbans mangrove forest is the largest in the world, and covers areas of India and Bangladesh for more than 80 kilometers in forming Sundarbans National Park, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
A third of this area is covered by water and marshes, as well Sundarbans
since 1966 has been considered a sanctuary for wildlife because it is
estimated that there live about 400 Royal Bengal Tigers and more than
30,000 deer in this area.
The forest lies at the feet of the Ganges and is spread across areas of
Bangladesh and West Bengal, India, forming the seaward fringe of the
delta. The seasonally-flooded Sundarbans freshwater swamp forests lie
inland from the mangrove forests.
The forest covers 10,000 km2 of which
about 6,000 are in Bangladesh. It became inscribed as a UNESCO world
heritage site in 1997, but while the Bangladeshi and Indian portions
constitute the same continuous ecotope, these are separately listed in
the UNESCO world heritage list as the Sundarbans and Sundarbans National
Park, respectively.
The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network
of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove
forests. The area is known for the eponymous Royal Bengal Tiger
(Panthera tigris tigris), as well as numerous fauna including species of
birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes.
It is estimated that there
are now 500[citation needed] Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer
in the area. Sundarbans was designated a Ramsar site on May 21, 1992.
The fertile soils of the delta have been subject to intensive human use
for centuries, and the ecoregion has been mostly converted to intensive
agriculture, with few enclaves of forest remaining.
The remaining forests, together with the Sundarbans mangroves, are important habitat for the endangered tiger. Additionally, the Sundarbans serves a crucial function as a protective flood barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around Kolkata (Calcutta) against the result of cyclone activity.
| The Sundarbans | |
|---|---|
| সুন্দরবন | |
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| Location | Khulna Division, Bangladesh |
| Nearest city | Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat |
| Coordinates | 21°56′59″N 89°10′59.988″ECoordinates: 21°56′59″N 89°10′59.988″E |
| Area | 139,500 ha (345,000 acres) |
| Established | 1991 |
| Governing body | Government of Bangladesh |
UNESCO World Heritage Site
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| Type: | Natural |
| Criteria: | ix, x |
| Designated: | 1997 (21th session) |
| Reference No. | 798 |
| State Party: |  Bangladesh |
| Region: | Asia-Pacific |
Ramsar Wetland
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| Official name: Sundarbans Reserved Forest | |
| Designated: | 21 May 1992 |
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