Sundarbans National Park (Mangroves Forest) | History, Location and Area & Tigers

The Sundarbans is a dense forest made up of islands in India and Bangladesh. Sundarbans has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. Sundarbans is surrounded by water and swamp and there are no roads here. The Sundarbans forests are known for their beauty, wildlife and the Royal Bengal Tiger. This is the world’s largest mangrove forest. Tigers, crocodiles, deer, monkeys, birds, snakes and other types of creatures live in the Sundarbans forest. The average temperature here is 20 to 45 degrees Celsius.

The Sundarbans forest is surrounded by the deltas of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Padma rivers. It rains heavily here and sometimes storms also occur. The water in the Sundarbans region is mostly salty. The population of residents living around this forest is more than 50 lakhs. The residents here mostly do fishing, farming and going into the forests to extract honey. Tourists are prohibited from going into the dense forests of Sundarbans. Tourists can visit this forest in the delta only by boat. Only the people of the forest department or the residents of Sundarbans go to the forests of Sundarbans.

Area and Location

Sundarbans is located near the Bay of Bengal. 40% of Sundarbans lies in India and 60% in Bangladesh. Sundarbans is a group of 102 islands, out of which 54 islands are inhabited by villages and the remaining islands are covered with dense forests. The area of Sundarbans forests is 10000 square kilometers.

History

The history of Sundarbans is very old, it got the name Sundarbans because of the large number of Sundaree trees. In the 19th century, when the Forest Department was formed in the Indian state of Bengal, the British conserved the forests here. At that time, the population of tigers used to be the majority here, but due to their hunting, their population started decreasing. When the Tiger Reserve Project was created in 1973, Sundarbans became its area. In the year 1984, this area was declared a national park and in 1989 this biosphere was declared a reserve.

Royal Bengal Tiger

Royal Bengal Tigers in Sundarbans forest are very dangerous as compared to other places. Every year more people are killed due to tiger attacks in Sundarbans forest. When people here go to the forests to extract honey, cut wood and catch fish, they are killed by the attacks of tigers. When the people of Sundarbans go to the forests, they go to the forest wearing a mask from behind because wearing a mask from behind makes the tiger think that he is looking at them. Tigers always attack from behind. Tigers mostly attack people only when people go into their territory because tigers do not like the arrival of intruders.