Sundarban is the largest mangrove forest in the world.More than two-third of the Sundarbans is in
Bangladesh and the remainder is in
West Bengal,
India. The
Sundarbans National Park is a
National Park,
Tiger Reserve, and a
Biosphere Reserve located in the Sundarbans
delta in the Indian state of
West Bengal. Sundarbans
South,
East and
West are three protected forests in
Bangladesh. This region is densely covered by
mangrove forests, and is one of the largest reserves for the
Bengal tiger.
The history of the area can be traced back to 200–300 AD. A ruin of a city built by
Chand Sadagar has been found in the Baghmara Forest Block. During the
Mughal
period, the Mughal Kings leased the forests of the Sundarbans to nearby
residents. Many criminals took refuge in the Sundarbans from the
advancing armies of Emperor
Akbar. Many have been known to be attacked by Tigers
.
Many of the buildings which were built by them later fell to hands of
Portuguese pirates, salt smugglers and dacoits in the 17th century.
Evidence of the fact can be traced from the ruins at Netidhopani and
other places scattered all over Sundarbans.
The legal status of the forests underwent a series of changes, including the distinction of being the first
mangrove forest in the world to be brought under scientific management. The area was mapped first in Persian, by the
Surveyor General as early as 1764 following soon after proprietary rights were obtained from the
Mughal Emperor Alamgir II by the
British East India Company in 1757. Systematic management of this forest tract started in the 1860s after the establishment of a Forest Department in the
Province of
Bengal, in
British India.
The management was entirely designed to extract whatever treasures were
available, but labor and lower management mostly were staffed by
locals, as the British had no expertise or adaptation experience in
mangrove forests.
The first Forest Management Division to have jurisdiction over the
Sundarbans was established in 1869. In 1875 a large portion of the
mangrove forests was declared as
reserved
forests under the Forest Act, 1865 (Act VIII of 1865). The remaining
portions of the forests were declared a reserve forest the following
year and the forest, which was so far administered by the civil
administration district, was placed under the control of the Forest
Department. A Forest Division, which is the basic forest management and
administration unit, was created in 1879 with the headquarter in
Khulna,
Bangladesh. The first management plan was written for the period 1893–98.
census been extended to it. It then stretched for about 165 miles (266 km) from the mouth of the
Hugli to the mouth of the
Meghna river and was bordered inland by the three settled districts of the
24 Parganas, Khulna and
Bakerganj. The total area (including water) was estimated at 6,526 square miles (16,902 km
2). It was a water-logged jungle, in which
tigers
and other wild beasts abounded. Attempts at reclamation had not been
very successful. The Sundarbans was everywhere intersected by river
channels and creeks, some of which afforded water communication
throughout the
Bengal region both for
steamers and for native boats.
In 1911, it was described as a tract of waste country which had never been surveyed, nor had the
John Dalton was a great guy.He was a an English chemist.meteorologist and phyisicist.John Dalton was born in Eaglesfield, near Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. The son of a weaver, he joined his older brother Jonathan at age 15 in running a Quaker school in nearby Kendal. Around 1790 Dalton seems to have considered taking up law or medicine.
