The largest mangrove forest of the world

The largest mangrove forest of the world

By Dr,fourkan Ali

 “If there is no mangrove forest, then the sea will have no meaning. It is like having a tree without roots, for the mangroves are the roots of the sea.” - A fisherman on the coast of the Andaman Sea.

The Sundarbans is the largest contiguous block of mangrove forest remaining in the world, Along the mouth of the Bay of Bengal, it extends over 10,000 square kilometers in Bangladesh and India Some 60 percent of the forest lies in Bangladesh an the rest in the Indian state of West Bengal. Said to be named after its maiden Sundari tree species, the Sundarbans is a globally significant ecosystem rich in bio-diversity providing habitat for around 554 plant and 453 animal species, including the world famous Royal Bengal Tiger Several critically endangered species like rare sharks also find refuge in this forest containing Sundari, Gewa, Goran, Keora, Passur Baen and many other trees and plants.

Besides its ecological value, more than four million people who live around the Sundarbans derive part of their subsistence extracting resources including fisheries, fuel wood, and non-wood forest products like honey Livelihood of million others also indirectly depends upon this rich forest.

Every year a good number of tidal surges hit Bangladesh’s south and south-western coastline and the Sundarbans bears the brunt acting as a vital barrier against all such calamitous lashings of the nature to protect the country's southwestern coastlines including the regional towns and cities like Mongla and Khulna.

What is mangrove forest

"One perceives a forest of jagged, gnarled trees protruding from the surface of the sea, roots anchored in deep, black, foul-smelling mud, verdant crowns arching toward a blazing sun...Here is where the land and sea intertwine, where the line dividing the ocean and continent blurs, in this setting the marine biologist and the forest ecologist both must work at the extreme reaches of their disciplines." That was how the Scientific American, a US specialized journal, described the mangrove forest in its March 1996 issue.

Growing in the inter-tidal areas and estuary mouths between land and sea, mangroves, able to tolerate saline water, provide critical habitat for a diverse marine and terrestrial flora and fauna Healthy mangrove forests are key to a healthy marine ecology.

Mangroves are the consequential product of the inter-relationships of flora, fauna, aquatic and water resources in certain natural conditions. The combinations of the resources and conditions, occupying the special ecological niche where seawater meets freshwater and fertilized periodically by sediments from the land and sea, are the foundation of its high biological productivity, uniqueness and diversity.

Mangrove forests are vital for healthy coastal ecosystems. The forest detritus, consisting mainly of fallen leaves and branches from the mangroves, provides nutrients for the marine environment and supports immense varieties of sea life in intricate food webs associated directly through detritus or indirectly through the plank tonic and epiphytic algal food chains. Planktons and benthic algae are primary sources of carbon in the mangrove ecosystem, in addition to detritus. The shallow inter-tidal reaches that characterize the mangrove wetlands offer refuge and nursery grounds for juvenile fish, crabs, shrimps, and mollusks, Mangroves are also prime nesting and migratory sites for hundreds of bird species.

Mangrove forests are comprised of taxonomically diverse, salt-tolerant tree and other plant species, which thrive in inter-tidal zones of sheltered tropical shores, "over-wash" islands, and estuaries. Mangrove trees have specially adapted aerial and salt-filtering roots and salt- excreting leaves that enable them to occupy the saline wetlands where other plant life cannot survive.

Often described as "rainforests by the sea," the mangroves are estimated to cover an area of 22 million hectares, dominating the majority of the subtropical and tropical coastlines around the world. However; over the past several decades, the global area in mangroves has greatly diminished as a result of a variety of human activities, such as over harvesting, freshwater diversion and conversion to other uses.

Mangrove forests literally live in two worlds at once, acting as the Interface between land and sea. Mangroves help protect coastlines from erosion, storm damage, and wave action. Thus the stability mangroves provide is of immense importance. They prevent shoreline erosion by acting as buffers and catch alluvial materials, thus stabilizing land elevation by sediment accretion that balances sediment loss. This way they also protect vital coral reefs and sea grass beds from damaging siltation.

World’s largest mangrove forest

The main feature of the Sundarbans, which is likely to mesmerize a lone tourist, is its unique silence. Without doubt, one‘s first impression of me dense forest will be its great silence. Forest creatures are very shy, but as the visitor picks his way along the trail or the water bodies around which occupy one third of the Sundarbans Reserve Forest (SRF), he will realize how alive it is. Numerous living organisms are discreetly watching and waiting whilst one passes through their protective home. From time to time, the complete tranquility will be shattered by a darting forest bird or a group of noisy monkeys jumping through the trees, disturbing the secretive residents and setting up a chain reaction when the ever-wary forest comes to a colorful and boisterous life for a moment, until silence reigns again.

Mangroves across the world are not particularly diverse in terms of their floristic composition, especially compared with rainforest ecosystems. While up to 75 species are recognized as genuine mangrove plants, the floristic composition of the Sundarbans is made up of 60 plus species. According to International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) no other mangrove ecological niche in the world offers such a variety of associate mangrove vegetation as the Sundarbans does.

Historical records reveal that during the medieval period, the northern boundary of the Sundarbans extended from Hatiagargh, south of Diamond Harbor on the Hoogly river to Bagerhat, south of Jessore and Haringhata along the southern part of Fakirhat, Satgaon and Khalifabad. During the later part of the 18th and early 19th centuries, the boundaries of the Sundarbans tract extended for about 273.55 kilometers along the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal from the estuary of the Hoogly river to that of the Meghna and inland up to a distance of 96.54 to 128.72 kilometers. According to a 1998 study carried out by UNDP/FAO sponsored Forest Resources Management Project (FRMP), the total area of the SRI-1 representing three wildlife sanctuaries is 6017 square kilometers stretching over the districts of Khulna, Patuakhali, Bagerhat and southern part of Satkhira. Of the total SRE 3997 square kilometers is forest area, sandbars or grass covers 115 square kilometers and the rest 1905 is occupied by a number of rivers or channels.

With expansion of human settlements and' reclamation of land for agricultural use, a large part of the forest was cleared in between 1830 and 1875, when parts of the mangroves were declared as resented forest i.e. the SRI-1 Since then the territorial integrity still remained almost intact, in sharp contrast with many other mainland "protected" areas in the country Despite large scale indiscriminate felling of trees due to management problems, the natural regeneration prom has kept the SRF alive and growing all die time. While all other forests in the world are being more and more technically managed and their soil productivity regeneration of plants, reproduction of wildlife are controlled and monitored regularly as they are tending to lose their erstwhile individual characteristics, die SRF is continuing to evolve new and newer biogeochemical cycles. However, it is also clear that the well-defined boundaries of rivers and canals, and perhaps the presence of widely feared what the local traditionally refer to as "maternal uncle" (the Royal Bengal Tiger) have added significantly to protecting the forest.