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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, forming the seaward fringe of the delta. 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 are the maneating Royal Bengal Tigers, 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 prize-winning anthropologist Amitav Ghosh's 2004 novel, ''The Hungry Tide'', is set in the Sundarbans.
During each monsoon season almost all the Bengali delta is submerged, much of it for half a year. The sediment of the lower delta plain is primarily advected inland by monsoonal coastal setup and cyclonic events. One of the greatest challenges people living on the Ganges Delta may face in coming years is the threat of rising sea levels caused mostly by subsidence in the region and partly by climate change. Residents have to be careful building on the river delta, as severe flooding sometimes occurs. A 1990 study noted "There is no evidence that environmental degradation in the Himalayas or a 'greenhouse'-induced rise in sea level have aggravated floods in Bangladesh." Upstream dams can reduce fresh water supply. In many of the Indian mangrove wetlands, freshwater reaching the mangroves was considerably reduced from the late 19th century due to diversion of freshwater in the upstream area. Also, the Bengal Basin is slowly tilting towards the east due to neo-tectonic movement, forcing greater freshwater input to the Bangladesh Sunderbans. As a result, the salinity of the Bangladesh Sunderbans is much lower than that of the Indian Sunderbans.

Contents

Etymology

History

Ecosystem

Maneating Tigers

References

External links

Etymology

"Sundarban" literally means "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language. The name Sundarbans may also have been derived from the Sundari trees that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers.

History

In 1911, it was described as a tract of waste country which had never been surveyed, nor had the census been extended to it. It then stretched for about 165 miles from the mouth of the Hugli to the mouth of the Meghna, and was bordered inland by the three settled districts of the Twenty-four Parganas, Khulna and Backergunje. The total area (including water) was estimated at 6526 square miles. It was a water-logged jungle, in which tigers and other wild beasts abounded. Attempts at reclamation had not been very successful. The characteristic tree was the ''sundri'' (''Heritiera littoralis''), from which the name of the tract had probably been derived. It yields a hard wood, used for building, and for making boats, furniture, etc. The Sundarbans were everywhere intersected by river channels and creeks, some of which afforded water communication between Calcutta and the Brahmaputra valley, both for steamers and for native boats.

Ecosystem

The mangrove-dominated Ganges delta – the Sundarbans - is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tract of mangrove forests of the world. Shared between two neighboring countries, Bangladesh and India, the larger part (62%)is situated in the southwest corner of Bangladesh. 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. 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 International Biosphere Reserves 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.
The Sundarbans has a population of over 4 million[1] but much of it 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 mangrove 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 or 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).

Maneating Tigers

The Sundarbans are home to approximately 400 Bengal Tigers as of 2004[2]. One of the largest single population of tigers. These tigers are well-known for the substantial number of people they kill; estimates range from 100-250 people per year. They are the only man-eating tigers left in the world, though they are not the only tigers who live in close proximity to humans. In Bandhavgarh, villages encircle the tiger reserves, and yet attacks on people are rare.
The locals and government officials take certain precautions to prevent attacks, although few of them work. Local fishermen will say prayers and perform rituals to the forest goddess, ''Bonbibi'', before setting out on expeditions. Invocations to the tiger god ''Daskin Ray'' (pronounced "DOCK-shin ROY") are also considered a necessity by the local populace for safe passage throughout the Sundarbans area. Fishermen and bushmen make facial masks to wear on the back of their heads, because tigers always attack from behind. This worked for a short time, but the tigers quickly realized it was a hoax, and the attacks continued. Government officials wear stiff pads that rise up the back of the neck, similar to the pads of an American football player. This is to prevent the tigers from biting into the spine, which is their favoured attack method.
There are several speculated causes as to why these tigers maul humans:

★ Since the Sundarbans is located in a coastal area, the water is relatively salty. In all other habitats, tigers drink fresh water. It is rumored that the saltiness of the tiger's water in this area has put them in a state of constant discomfort, leading them to be extremely aggressive. Freshwater lakes have been artificially made but to no avail.

★ The high tides in the area destroy the tiger's scents which serve as territorial markers. Thus, the only way for a tiger to defend its territory is to physically dominate everything that enters.

★ Another possibility is that these tigers have grown used to human flesh due to the weather. Floods in this part of India kill thousands, and the bodies drift out in to the swampy waters, where tigers scavenge on them.

★ Another possibility is that the tigers find hunting animals difficult due to the continuous high & low tides making the area marsh-like and slippery. Humans travel through the Sunderbans on boats gathering honey and fishing, making an easy or accessible prey. It is also believed that when a person stops to work, the tiger mistakes them for an animal, and has, over time, acquired a 'taste' for the human flesh.

★ It has also been hypothesized that the tigers in this area, due to their secluded habitat, avoided the brunt of the hunting sprees that occurred over the course of the 20th century. Tigers inhabiting the rest of Asia developed a fear of humans after these events, but tigers in the Sundarbans would never have had reason to stop seeing humans as a prey item.

References

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★ 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.

★ Montgomery, Sy (1995). ''Spell of the Tiger: The Man-Eaters of Sundarbans''. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York.

★ Rivers of Life: Living with Floods in Bangladesh. M. Q. Zaman. Asian Survey, Vol. 33, No. 10 (Oct., 1993), pp. 985-996

★ Modern sediment supply to the lower delta plain of the Ganges-Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh. September, 2001. Geo-Marine Letters, Volume 21, Number 2.

★ Floods in Bangladesh: II. Flood Mitigation and Environmental Aspects. H. Brammer. The Geographical Journal, Vol. 156, No. 2 (Jul., 1990), pp. 158-165.

★ Environmental classification of mangrove wetlands of India. V. Selvam. Current Science, Vol. 84, No. 6, 25 March 2003.

External links

★ Indian Sundarban, West bengal Sundarban, Sundarban India

★ Tiger Research Project on Sundarbans Tigers

★ Sundarbans mangroves (World Wildlife Fund)

★ Official Citation at World Heritage website

★ Sundarbans - Royal Bengal Tiger in World’s largest Mangrove forests

★ Notes on the Sundarbans by Samuel Snedaker

★ Description of Sundarbans-officially

★ Visit the Bangladesh part of Sundarban

★ The Indian part of Sundarban

★ Bird-watching in Sundarban

★ Another Sundarban factfile
sunderbans The mystic mangrove by Biswajit Roy Chowdhury & Pradeep Vyas published by Niyogi Books www.niyogibooks.com

★ Sundarban in Banglapedia

★ West Bengal Govt site on Sundarban, with info on travel

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