Sundarbans mangrove forest is the
largest in the world, and covers areas of the 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 Sundarbanns since 1966 has been considered a sanctuary for wildlife
because it is estimated that there live about 400 Royal Bengal Tigres 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 forest 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.
