The Sundarbans
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 |
The Sundarbans is a mangrove forest and is one of the largest of such forests in the world. The 140,000 hectare mangrove forest lies in the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal and is adjacent to the border of India’s Sundarbans World Heritage site inscribed in 1987. The site 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, including 260 bird species, the Bengal tiger and other threatened species such as the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python.
The Sundarbans along the Bay of Bengal has evolved over the millennia through natural deposition of upstream sediments accompanied by intertidal segregation. The physiography is dominated by deltaic formations that include innumerable drainage lines associated with surface and subaqueous levees, splays and tidal flats. There are also marginal marshes above mean tide level, tidal sandbars and islands with their networks of tidal channels, subaqueous distal bars and proto-delta clays and silt sediments. The Sundarbans’ floor varies from 0.9 m to 2.11 m above sea level.
Biotic factors here play a significant role in physical coastal evolution and for wildlife a variety of habitats have developed including beaches, estuaries, permanent and semi-permanent swamps, tidal flats, tidal creeks, coastal dunes, back dunes and levees. The mangrove vegetation itself assists in the formation of new landmass and the intertidal vegetation plays an important role in swamp morphology.
The Sundarbans flora is characterized by the abundance of Heritiera fomes, Excoecaria agallocha, Ceriops decandra and Sonneratia apetala. There is a total of 245 genera and 334 plant species that are recorded in 1903. Since then, there have been considerable changes in the status of various mangrove species and taxonomic revision of the mangrove flora. The mangroves in this forest are dominated by the Sterculiaceae and Euphorbiaceae species. The Bangladesh mangrove vegetation of the Sundarbans differs greatly from other non-deltaic coastal mangrove forest and upland forests associations. The Sundarbans has been classified as a moist tropical forest demonstrating a whole mosaic of seres, comprising primary colonization on new accretions to more mature beach forests, often conspicuously dominated by Keora (Sonneratia apetala) and tidal forests.
The Sundarbans is also very rich in wildlife but the management is focused primarily on the restriction and protection of the wildlife from poaching. There are some areas in the Sundarbans where it is declared as wildlife sanctuaries and no extraction of forest produce is allowed and the wildlife will not be disturbed. The Bengal tiger and the dolphins are the target species for the wildlife management and tourism development. The Sundarbans are home to approximately 500 Bengal Tigers as of 2004 which is one of the largest population of tigers. The Sundarbans provides a unique ecosystem and extensive habitats for wildlife. Some of the wildlife at the Sundarbans are the river terrapin (Batagur baska), Indian flap-shelled turtle (Lissemys punctata), peacock soft-shelled turtle (Trionyx hurum), yellow monitor (Varanus flavescens), water monitor (Varanus salvator), Indian python (Python molurus) and the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris). Some of these species are protected by law like the Bangladesh Wildlife (Preservation) Order, 1973 (P.O. 23 of 1973).
The Sundarbans play an important role in the economy of the southwestern region of Bangladesh as well as in the national economy. It is the single largest source of forest produce in the country. The forest provides raw material for wood based industries. In addition to traditional forest produce like timber, fuel wood and pulpwood, large scale harvest of non wood forest products such as thatching materials, honey, bees-wax, fish, crustacean and mollusk resources of the forest takes place regularly. The vegetated tidal lands of the Sundarbans also function as an essential habitat, nutrient producer, water purifier, nutrient and sediment trap, storm barrier, shore stabilizer, energy storage unit and aesthetic attraction.