Meet the largest mangrove forest of world.

"The Beautiful forest" or "Sundarban" is the largest mangrove forest in the world. The name "Sundarban" comes from two words "Sundar" a Bangla word which means "Beautiful" and "Ban" another Bangle word this means "Forest". So in together the "Sundarban" is in Bangla the "The Beautiful forest". There's another suspected origin of the mane "Sundarban" that is the "Sundori' tree or scientifically known as Heritiera Fomes, Which is mostly found in "SundarBan".

This mangrove forest covers about 10,000 square kilometers. From which Bangladesh has more than 60% of the total area and other is mainly in India. In Bangladesh it is located in "Khulna" district on the delta of Bhramaputra ,Meghna and Ganges rivers on the Bay of Bangla.

The most amazing thing which made this forest unique is the "Biodiversity".  The ecosystem of this forest is based on both Flora (the plant species) and Fauna (the animal species). If we go through some data of previous years this forest has approximately 334 species of Plant and Trees in the flora group, where fauna has more than 125 fishes, 42 mammals, 35 types of reptiles and 8 kinds of amphibians.

Sundarban is full of Fauna. The first example can be 'The Royal Bengal Tiger" or locally called "Uncle Tiger". This forest has more than 250 tigers in total. Without this Sundarban have abundant mammals like grey mongooses, foxes, rhesus macaque, flying foxes and the most common spotted deer.

In Avifauna this forest is full of different kinds of eagles, water hens, jungle crows, ducks, night herons and other birds.

In aqua fauna butter fish, saw fish, silver carps, prawn and the most founded Tree frog is very common. 

Now come to the soil and water of the forest. As it is on the Bay of Bangla, its soil is a little salty in nature thus the pH is about 5.5 to 8. The main component of the soil is ions like Sodium or Calcium. Organic materials are also found in the soil but the founded highest range was 10% of the dry soil. But it is also noted that the salinity of the soil is not uniform all over the forest.

Now come to water. Like the soil water is also saline in nature. According to the salinity the water s divided in to three areas or regions first the Oligohaline zone which has less salinity and here the famous "Sundori" tree grows. Then the Mesohaline zone, where another tree grows named "Gewa". And the last type is Polyhaline zone the place of "Goran" trees.

Sundarban is one of the most beautiful places for the local and international tourists. The most visited places of this forest are Sundarban Hiron Point and Sundarban National Park. For its natural beauty "Sundarban" become a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Omer Fayshal Pavel
14th Eco-generation Regional Ambassador to Bangladesh.