World Heritage Site - Sundarbans Islands - Apparently Took Brunt Of Cyclone Sidr

[hatrack]

Dhaka - 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.

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.

EDIT

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=nw20071117145902340C619557

[phantom power]

1. No number of nature preserves can protect wildlife from climate change.

:(