Sundarbans is the biggest mangrove forest in the world. The name Sundarban can be literally translated as "beautiful jungle" or "beautiful forest" in the Bengali language The name may have been derived from the Sundari trees that are found in Sundarbans in large numbers. The Sundarbans stands in the south-east tidal area of Bangladesh. Sundarbans surrounding in the costal area of the Bangladesh. The Sundarbans along the Bay of Bengal has evolved over the millenarian through natural deposition of upstream sediments accompanied by intertidal segregation.
The Sundarbans play an important role in the economy of the southwestern region of Bangladesh as well as in the national economy. It is the single largest source of forest produce in the country. The forest provides raw material for wood based industries. In addition to traditional forest produce like timber, fuelwood, pulpwood etc , large scale harvest of non wood forest products such as thatching materials, honey, bees-wax, fish, crustacean and mollusk resources of the forest takes place regularly. The vegetated tidal lands of the Sundarbans also function as an essential habitat, nutrient producer, water purifier, nutrient and sediment trap, storm barrier, shore stabilizer, energy storage unit and aesthetic attraction.
The forest also has immense protective and productive functions. 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 . A number of industries (e.g. newsprint mill, match factory, hardboard, boat building, furniture making) are based on the raw material obtained from the Sundarbans ecosystem. Various non-timber forest products and plantations help generate considerable employment and income generation opportunities for at least half a million poor coastal population. Besides production functions of the forest, it provides natural protection to life and properties of the coastal population in cyclone prone Bangladesh.
Sundarbans has huge types of trees, wild animals and birds. Sundori, kayora, goran, bayen, dundol are the valuable plants of sundorbon.The Sundarbans is very rich in wildlife. Sundarbans has lots of wild animals and birds, the world famous Royal Bengal tiger are found in this forest, the most beautiful spotted deer, crocodile, wild cock, python, monkey, snacks and different kinds of birds. Three are 360 tigers in Sundarbans nowadays the Royal Bengal Tigers are losing day by day so, Bangladesh Forest Department starting The Sundarban Tiger project for save the tigers . The idea for creating such a project was first developed during a field survey in 2001 conducted by Md. Osman Gani, Ishtiaq U. Ahmad, James L. D. Smith and K. Ullas Karanth. They realized that the Sundarbans mangrove forest at the mouth of the Ganges River contained probably one of the largest populations of wild tigers left in the world. As such, there was an urgent need to start measures that would ensure the protection of this precious area.The Save the Tiger Fund and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service generously donated funds to support the initial phase of research that aims to collect data on tiger ecology using telemetry, and study the tiger’s environment by assessing its habitat and prey.
Now Sundarbans is attested in the world heritage site of UNESCO. There is a lot of tourist spot in Sundarban such as kotka, Hiron point, herbaria tourism center, jalkor dublar choar etc.
