Sundarbans Tiger Preserve Starting To Disintegrate As Mangrove Trees Die Off

[hatrack]

SUNDERBANS TIGER RESERVE: As the midday sun beats down on the world's largest tiger reserve, fishermen in a small wooden boat slowly manoeuvre their way through the mangrove forests fringing the Bay of Bengal. Twenty years ago, the fishermen say they would never have been able to venture through the mangrove creek in eastern India to catch fish, too fearful of the tigers that stalked the area for prey and shelter.

But the once lush, dense mangrove cover is sparse now -- reduced to decaying branches -- and the big cats have now moved on in search of food and protection. Wildlife experts say rising sea levels and coastal erosion caused by global warming are steadily shrinking the mangroves of Sunderbans, threatening the survival of the endangered tigers.

"We are very concerned at the erosion level in tiger habitat, and we are planning to increase mangrove cover in core areas to protect the tiger," said Kanti Ganguly, minister for the Sunderbans in West Bengal. The Sunderbans, a 26,000 square km area of low-lying swamps on India's border with Bangladesh, is dotted with hundreds of small islands criss-crossed by water channels.

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As sea levels rise, mangroves have been overexposed to salt water. Many plants have lost their red and green colours and are more like bare twigs, exposing tigers to poachers who hunt them for their skin and bones. Also, tigresses now have fewer places to hide their cubs from adult males, who seek to kill them in order to stem competition in the group, conservationists warn.

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