Sundarbans Reserved Forest

The Sundarbans lie on the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal and form one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, 140,000 ha. Tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangroves are home to 260 bird species, the Bengal tiger, the estuarine crocodile and the Indian python. There is archaeological evidence of earlier settlement on the islands, but according to IUCN's evaluation human occupation ceased in the 17th century, reportedly because of pirate attacks.

In 1757 the British East India Company obtained proprietary rights over the Sundarbans from the Mughal emperor Alamgir II, and it completed a map of the area in 1764. Systematic forest management came a century later: the first Forest Management Division was set up in 1869, the forests were declared reserved in the 1870s, and in 1879 a Forest Division was created with its headquarters in what is now Khulna. The first management plan covered 1893 to 1898.

Until partition in 1947 the Sundarbans were managed as a single forest block. The East, West and South Wildlife Sanctuaries on the Bangladesh side were established in 1977 and extended in 1996. The mangrove area is about half of what it was 200 years ago, the rest having been cleared for farmland. The site was inscribed in 1997 and adjoins India's Sundarbans National Park, inscribed in 1987.