INDIAN GEOGRAPHY

Detailed explanation-1: -The Sundarbans mangrove forest, one of the largest such forests in the world (140, 000 ha), lies on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal. It is adjacent to the border of India’s Sundarbans World Heritage site inscribed in 1987.

Detailed explanation-2: -Mangrove forests are found in the deltas of rivers like Ganga, Krishna, Mahanadi, Godavari, and Kaveri. According to the report of ISFR 2017, the total area of mangrove habitat in India is 4921 km2, which is about 3.3% of the global mangrove cover.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove ecosystem in the world. Named after the dominant mangrove tree species, Heritiera fomes, known as sundri in Bengali, Sundarbans itself literally means ‘beautiful forest’ in Bengali.

Detailed explanation-4: -In India, mangroves are found on the east and west coasts of the mainland and on the Islands of Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep.

Detailed explanation-5: -In India, the mangrove forests are distributed in 9 states and 3 union territories. These mangrove forests in India cover over about 4, 97m square kilometers of land. The top 2 states with the highest cover are West Bengal with 2, 112 square kilometers and Gujarat with 1, 177 square kilometers.