About Indian Sunderbans

• The Sundarbans forest is about 10,000 sq km across India and Bangladesh, of which 40% lies in India.
• The forest in India is divided into the Sundarbans Tiger Reserve and 24 Parganas (South) Forest Division, and together with the forest in Bangladesh is the only mangrove forest in the world where tigers are found.
• The Indian Sunderbans, which covers 4,200 sq km, comprises the Sunderban Tiger Reserve of 2,585 sq km — home to about 96 Royal Bengal Tigers (as per last census in 2020 ) — is also a world heritage site and a Ramsar Site.

Why in the news?

• Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) has published a book on the birds of sunderbans – “Birds of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve”.
• It not only recorded 428 species of birds, along with this it published photographs of male and female of each species as well as their distribution and locality data. This is to encourage bird watching in the region.
• • The report found that the area is home to nine out of 12 species of kingfishers found in the country as well rare species such as the Goliath heron (image 1) and Spoon-billed Sandpiper (image2).
  • Masked Finfoot (image3) and Buffy fish owl (image 4), are recorded only from the Sunderbans. 
  • The mudflats and wetlands of Sunderbans act as a stopover site for migratory flight south (south wards) and back. 

References:

1. https://www.wwfindia.org/about_wwf/critical_regions/sundarbans3/about_sundarbans/
2. https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/sunderbans-home-to-428-species-of-birds-records-zsi/article33651099.ece