sundarban forest

The Sundarbans (21°30'- 22°30'N, 89°12'-90°18'E) are a World Heritage Site which consists of three wildlife sanctuaries (Sundarbans West, East and South) lying on disjunct deltaic islands in the Sundarbans Forest Division of Khulna District, close to the border with India and immediately west of the principal outflow of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers. The Sundarbans belong to Bengalian Rainforest biogeographical province.

Date and History of Establishment

1977: All three wildlife sanctuaries established under the Bangladesh Wildlife (Preservation) (Amendment) Act, 1974,

1878: The three sanctuaries gazetted as forest reserves.

1996: The total area of wildlife sanctuaries extended; the entire Sundarbans is reserved forest, established under the Indian Forest Act, 1878.

1997: The Sundarbans inscribed on the World Heritage List.

Area

The total area of the Bangladesh section of Sundarbans is 595,000 hectares (ha) of which 139,699ha are protected as follows: Sundarbans West Wildlife Sanctuary with 71,502ha; Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary with 31,226 hectares; and Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary with 36,970ha. Sundarbans National Park (133,010 hectares), a World Heritage Site, is situated to the west in India.

Physical Features

The Sundarbans, covering some 10,000 square kilometers of land and water, is part of the world's largest delta (80,000sq.km) formed from sediments deposited by three great rivers, the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna, which converge on the Bengal Basin. The total area of the Bangladesh Sundarbans is 5771 square kilometres (nearly 62 percent of the total), of which 4071 square kilometres is land and the balance is covered by water. This area is approximately half the size of the area of mangroves that existed two centuries earlier, the other half suffering habitat destruction, having been cleared and converted to agricultural land.

The land is molded by tidal action, resulting in a distinctive physiography. An intricate network of interconnecting waterways, of which the larger channels of often a mile or greater in width extend in a generally north-south direction, intersects the whole area. Innumerable small khals drain the land at each ebb.Rivers in this ecoregion tend to be long and straight, a consequence of the strong tidal forces and the clay and silt deposits which resist erosion. Easily eroded sands collect at the river mouths and form banks and chars, which are blown into dunes above the highwater mark by the strong southwest monsoon. Finer silts are washed out into the Bay of Bengal but, where they are protected from wave action, mud flats form in the lee of the dunes. These become overlain with sand from the dunes, and develop into grassy middens. This process of island building continues for as long as the area on the windward side is exposed to wave action. With the formation of the next island further out, silt begins to accumulate along the shore of the island and sand is blown or washed away. Apart from Baleswar River the waterways carry little freshwater as they are cut off from the Ganges, the outflow of which has shifted from the Hooghly-Bhagirathi channels in India progressively eastwards since the 17th century. They are kept open largely by the diurnal tidal flow.

Alluvial deposits are geologically very recent and quite deep. The soil is a silty clay loam with alternate layers of clay, silt and sand. The surface is clay except on the seaward side of islands in the coastal limits, where sandy beaches occur. In the eastern part of the Sundarbans the surface soil is soft and fertile, whereas it is harder and less suitable for tree growth in the west . The potential of hydrogen (pH) averages 8.0, or slightly basic.

Visitors and Visitor Facilities

Few tourists visit the Sundarbans due to the difficulty and cost of arranging transport and to the lack of suitable accommodation and other facilities. The area has no potential for mass tourism but it does offer obvious possibilities for limited special-interest tourism from October to April or May. The use of launches equipped with catering and sleeping facilities is considered more practicable than permanent land-based facilities and would provide greater flexibility. There is, however, a large well-equipped rest house belonging to the Port Authority at Hiron Point, Sundarbans South Wildlife Sanctuary, and a smaller one belonging to the Forest Department at Katka in Sundarbans East Wildlife Sanctuary.

Scientific Research and Facilities

Considerable research has been carried out on the Sundarbans ecosystem and its wildlife. Hendrichs undertook a three-month field study of tiger, concentrating on the problem of man-eating, and other vertebrates and invertebrates, in 1971. Other faunal surveys include those of Gittins and Khan for rhesus macaque, Khan for spotted deer, Sarker and Sarker for birds, and Sarker and Sarker and Sarker for birds of prey. About 500 foreign tourists visited the area in 1996 plus 5000 domestic tourists, the majority at the South Wildlife Sanctuary.

Source: http://www.eoearth.org/view/article/156336/