Sundarban

(Bengali: সুন্দরবন, Shundorbôn) is the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world. The name Sundarban can be accurately translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" . The name may have been derived from the ‘Sundari’ trees that are found in Sundarbans in huge numbers. on the other hand, it has been proposed that the name is a corruption of Samudraban or Chandra-bandhe (name of a primitive tribe). But the generally accepted view is the one associated with Sundari trees. The forest covers 10,000 sq.km. of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh. It became inscribed as a UNESCO world heritage site in 1997. The Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans is estimated to be about 4,110 km², of which about 1,700 km² is occupied by water bodies in the forms of river, canals and creeks of width varying from a few meters to several kilometers. The Sundarbans has a population of over 4 million, but much of it is mostly free of permanent human habitation.
In addition to traditional forest produce like timber, fuel wood, pulpwood etc., large scale harvest of non wood forest products such as thatching materials, honey, bees-wax, fish, and crustacean and mollusk resources of the forest takes place regularly. Constituting 51% of the total reserved forest estate of Bangladesh it contributes about 41% of total forest revenue and accounts for about 45% of all timber and fuel wood output of the country (FAO 1995).