Latest Sundarbans Stories

The search is on for endangered Bengal tigers in the world's largest mangrove forest after a cyclone caused havoc there killing at least 180 people. Conservationists are scouring the Sundarbans mangrove forest for the tigers. The Cyclone Aila drove a tidal wave of saltwater inland.Abani Bhusan Thakur, chief Bangladesh official for the Sundarbans, said the forest had taken the brunt of the damage. The cyclone hit Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal on Monday.He said forest workers...

Researchers report finding a stronghold for the Irrawaddy, one of the world's rarest freshwater dolphins, deep in the Bangladesh jungles. Scientists counted nearly 6,000 of the dolphins in the South Asian country's Sundarbans mangrove forest adjacent to the Bay of Bengal, the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a release. Before the find by the Wildlife Conservation Society there were only a few hundred of the Irrawaddy believed alive. This discovery gives us great hope that there is a...

A climate change expert warned Monday, that rising sea levels are causing salt water to flow into India's biggest river, threatening its ecosystem and turning vast farmlands barren in the country's east.A study by an east Indian University in the city of Kolkata revealed surprising growth of mangroves on the Ganges river."This phenomenon is called extension of salt wedge and it will salinate the groundwater of Kolkata and turn agricultural lands barren in adjoining rural belts,"...

There is an increase in the amount of tiger attacks on people in India's Sundarban islands as the loss of their native habitats and decreasing prey caused by the problematic climate change forces them to stalk villages for food, experts announced Monday.Experts state that the endangered tigers located in the world's biggest reserve are attacking humans as rising sea levels and coastal erosion is gradually reducing the tigers' natural habitat.The Sundarbans, a 10,000 sq mile area of swamps...

ASEAN secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan said Burma's coastal areas were left exposed to last weekend's catastrophic cyclone as a result of destruction of the country's mangrove forests.  Officials say at least 100,000 people perished in the catastrophe.Both the large numbers of people living in coastal areas and the loss of mangroves had contributed to the tragedy, Pitsuwan said while speaking at a high-level ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) meeting in...

In an effort to save endangered tigers, India announced on Friday that it intends to spend $13 million to "raise, arm and deploy" a Tiger Protection Force.Finance Minister P. Chidambaram's announcement comes just weeks after a $153 million program was proposed to create new tiger reserves.India's Tiger Project said that recent calculations found that the wild tiger population has dropped from 3,600 five years ago to about 1,411."The number 1,411 should ring the alarm bells,"...

Text of report by Amin Al Rashid headlined "Coastal areas to remain under risk: one-third mangrove forest destroyed in 50 years" published by Bangladeshi newspaper Jai Jai Din on 4 December The main mangrove forests are vital to the safety of the coastal areas. But unfortunately, in the name of the "shrimp revolution" a vast number of mangroves have been destroyed in various places in the country, including Satkhira and Cox's Bazar districts. As a result, damage caused by the recent Cyclone...

By Bappa MajumdarKOLKATA, India (Reuters) - An intriguing love triangle set in the world's largest tiger reserve is being turned into a Bollywood film, in a rare celluloid adaptation of a best-selling Indian novel."The Hungry Tide" will be set in the United States, Cambodia and the Sunderbans mangrove forest along India's east coast, famous for its tigers and crocodiles and crisscrossed by hundreds of creeks and islands frequently hidden by tides.Bollywood has often adapted Western...

By Bappa Majumdar KOLKATA, India (Reuters) - An intriguing love triangle set in the world's largest tiger reserve is being turned into a Bollywood film, in a rare celluloid adaptation of a best-selling Indian novel. "The Hungry Tide" will be set in the United States, Cambodia and the Sunderbans mangrove forest along India's east coast, famous for its tigers and crocodiles and criss-crossed by hundreds of creeks and islands frequently hidden by tides. Bollywood has often adapted Western...

By Bappa MajumdarCANNING, India -- Authorities in eastern India have arrested 30 poachers in the world's largest tiger reserve this year against 40 caught in 2004 and 2005, officials said on Monday.They said the sharp jump in arrests in the first nine weeks of 2006 were largely the result of border troops joining wildlife personnel in tackling poachers in the Sunderbans, a vast mangrove forest home to scores of Royal Bengal tigers."Joint patrolling and vigilance between us and the Border...