A vast mangrove forest shared by Bangladesh and India that is home to possibly 500 Bengali tigers is being rapidly destroyed by crosion, rising sea levels and storm surges, according to a major study by researchers at the Zoological society of London (ZSL) and others. The sundarbans forest took the brunt of super cyclone sidr in 2007, but new satelite studies show that 71%of the forested coastline is reteating by as much as 200 metres a year. A continuing rate of retreat would see these parts of the mangrove disappear witin 50 year.On tge Indian side of the sundarbans, the island which extends most into the Bay of Bengal has receded by an average of metres a year, with a maximum of just over 200 metres; this would seee the disapparance of the island in about 20 years." The sundarbans is a critical tiger habitat; one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers. to lose the sundarbans wold be to move a step closer to the extinction of these majestic animals,"said ZSL tiger expart Sarah Christic.
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