26th March 2019


In 50 years from now, by 2070, the entire population of Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans mangroves in Bangladesh is likely to be lost to climate change and sea level rise, a modeling study by Bangladesh and Australian researchers has predicted.

Further, by 2050 researchers forecast that a Ceriops decandra-dominated mangrove stretch along the India-Bangladesh border would potentially be the only refuge of the big cats in the Sundarbans, underpinning the urgency of executing transboundary measures in conservation. “If we don’t look after Bengal tigers and their critical habitats, our studies show a rapid decline in the Bengal tiger population and suitable tiger habitats in the Bangladesh Sundarbans area by 2050, and a complete loss of this species by 2070,” said the corresponding author of the study, Sharif A. Mukul.

Spanning more than 10,000 square kilometres, the Sundarbans region of Bangladesh and India is the biggest mangrove forest in the world and also the most critical area for Bengal tiger survival. Sprawled out across 6,017 square kilometres, the Bangladesh side of the forest covers nearly 60 percent of the total area of the Sundarbans. The rest is in India.

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