Sunderban Biosphere Reserve

Geography glossary

Topic: Biodiversity and its Conservation · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 5 "Natural Vegetation"

Meaning

Sunderban Biosphere Reserve covers the Indian part of the Sundarbans in West Bengal. It was set up in 1989. A biosphere reserve has a strictly protected core, a buffer for research and limited use, and a transition zone where people live and use resources sustainably. The Sundarbans are the world's largest mangrove forest. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees that grow on muddy tidal coasts. This reserve is on UNESCO's World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

Example

The Sundarbans lie in the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta. India holds about 40% of them and Bangladesh holds the rest. The mangroves shield the coast from cyclones. The tigers here swim in salt water.

Don't confuse with

  • Sundarbans National Park: this is the core protected area inside the region. It became one of the first nine tiger reserves in 1973, a World Heritage Site in 1987 and a Ramsar site in 2019. The biosphere reserve is a much larger area that also includes zones where people live.

Related concepts

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