Yahoo News 17 Nov 07;
Bangladesh's vast Sunderbans mangrove forest, home to the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, bore the brunt of a deadly cyclone that smashed into the country, likely killing wildlife, an official said.
Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh's southern coast on Thursday evening before roaring through central districts killing hundreds and possibly thousands of people and devastating vast areas.
"The winds have twisted the mangrove by flattening thousands of trees," said Ainun Nishat, the World Conservation Union's country representative in Bangladesh.
He said the strong tidal surge could have killed wildlife.
"I am concerned that thousands of deers and some tigers would have been washed into the rivers by the surge and might have died."
Lying on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta where it meets the Bay of Bengal on Bangladesh's southern coast, the Sunderbans is the world's largest mangrove forest covering some 5,800 square kilometres (3,590 square miles).
It is made up of around 200 lush forested islands, separated by a complex network of hundreds of tidal rivers and creeks. About 40 percent of the Sunderbans is in India.
Experts say the mangrove forest forms an important buffer shielding millions from the worst impact of the Bay of Bengal's many cyclonic storms and tidal waves.
Although not inhabited, the jungle is a magnet for thousands of impoverished villagers who live along its boundaries and work there as fishermen or collecting honey or wood.
The Sunderbans is home to an estimated 500 Royal Bengal tigers. There are only an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 of the endangered species left worldwide, down from 100,000 in 1900.
