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Sundarbans

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

The Sundarbans delta is the largest mangrove forest in the world. It lies at the mouth of the Ganges and is spread across areas of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. Interestingly, the Bangladesh and Indian portion of the jungle are listed in the UNESCO world heritage list separately as the Sundarbans and Sundarbans National Park respectively, though they are simply parts of the same forest. The Sundarbans is intersected by a complex network of tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forests, and presents an excellent example of ongoing ecological processes. The area is known for its wide range of fauna. The most famous among these is the Bengal Tiger, but numerous species of birds, spotted deer, crocodiles and snakes also inhabit it. It is estimated that there are now 400 Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area.

Most of the plot of price-winning anthropologist Amitav Ghosh's 2004 novel The Hungry Tide is set in the Sundarbans.

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Ecosystem Details

The mangrove-dominated Ganges delta – the Sundarbans - is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tract mangrove forests of the world (Blasco 1975). Shared between two neighboring countries, Bangladesh and India, the larger part (62% of the total mangrove ecosystem) is situated in the southwest corner of Bangladesh between latitudes 21027'30" - 22030'00" North and longitude 89002'00" - 900 00'00" East. The western boundary of the Bangladeshi Sundarbans follows the Harinbhanga-Raimangal-Kalindi river system and abuts with the Indian Sundarbans. To the south the forest meets the Bay of Bengal; to the east it is bordered by the Baleswar River and to the north there is a sharp interface with intensively cultivated land. The natural drainage in the upstream areas, other than the main river channels, is everywhere impeded by extensive embankments and polders. The total land area is 4,143 km² (including exposed sandbars - 42 km²) and the remaining water area of 1,874 km² encompasses rivers, small streams and canals. Rivers in the Sundarbans are meeting places of salt water and freshwater, of freshwater and salt water. Thus, it is a region of transition between the freshwater of the rivers originating from the Ganges and the saline water of the Bay of Bengal (Wahid et.al. 2002).

In terms of biodiversity, the Sundarbans contrasts the other large mangrove forests for its extraordinarily diverse wildlife and designated as a UNESCO’s World Network of Man and Biosphere Reserve since 2001. The forest also has immense protective and productive functions. Constituting 51% of the total reserved forest estate of Bangladesh it contributes about 41% of total forest revenue and accounts for about 45% of all timber and fuel wood output of the country (FAO 1995). A number of industries (e.g. newsprint mill, match factory, hardboard, boat building, furniture making) are based on the raw material obtained from the Sundarbans ecosystem. Various non-timber forest products and plantations help generate considerable employment and income generation opportunities for at least half a million poor coastal population. Besides production functions of the forest, it provides natural protection to life and properties of the coastal population in cyclone prone Bangladesh.

However, despite the fact that the Sundarbans is mostly free of permanent human habitation and retained a forest closure of about 70% according to the Overseas Development Administration (ODA) of the United Kingdom in 1985, forest inventories reveal a decline in standing volume of the two main commercial plant species - Sundri Heritiera fomes and Gewa Excoecaria agallocha - by 40% and 45% respectively between 1959 and 1983 (Forestal 1960 and ODA 1985). Also, despite a total ban on all killing or capture of wildlife other than fish and some invertebrates, there appears to be a pattern of depleted biodiversity, loss of species, notably at least six mammals and one important reptile this century and that the "ecological quality of the original mangrove forest is declining" (IUCN 1994).

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References

Blasco, F. (1975). The Mangroves of India. Institut Francis de Pondichery, Travaux de las Section Scientifique et Technique, Tome XIV, Facicule 1. Pondichery, India.
FAO (1995). Integrated Resource Management Plan of the Sundarbans Reserved Forest - Final Report. FAO Project BGD/84/056. FAO, Rome, Italy.
Forestal (1960). Forest Inventory 1958-59 Sundarbans Forests. Oregon: Forestal Forestry and Engineering International Ltd, Canada.
IUCN (1994). Mangroves of the Sundarbans. Volume 2: Bangladesh. The IUCN Wetlands Programme. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.
ODA (1985). A forest inventory of the Sundarbans, Bangladesh. Main Report. Land Resources Development Centre, Surbiton, England.
Wahid, S.M., Alam, M.J. and Rahman, A. (2002). "Mathematical river modelling to support ecological monitoring of the largest mangrove forest of the world – the *Sundarbans". Proceedings of First Asia-Pacific DHI software conference, 17-18 June, 2002.

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