World's largest mangrove forest in Bangladesh bears brunt of cyclone Sidr

Environmentalists and bio-diversity experts of Bangladesh fear the World's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans in southern Bangladesh and its wildlife, including 450 Royal Bengal tiger, suffered colossal damage in cyclone Sidr.

The terrible tropical storm code-named sidr which lashed Bangladesh's south and southwestern regions Thursday evening, hit the eastern part of the forest with a speed of up to 220 kmph and seven feet high tidal surge.

Dr. Aiun Nishat, country representative of International Union for the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), told Xinhua Saturday that much of the wildlife of the world natural heritage site might have been washed away by tidal waves.

He said the damage done to the forest by Sidr might be much worse than that of in 1988, which uprooted thousands of trees and caused deaths of hundreds of deer and nine tigers when a six feet high tidal wave with wind speed of 160 kmph lashed the forest.

However, the details about the situation in the mangrove forest after the devastation is not available.

The cyclone Sidr crossed through the country's southern Barisal-Khulna belt from the Bay of Bengal early Friday, killing hundreds of people, flattening thousands of houses, uprooting trees, snapping telephone and power lines.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/17/content_7093869.htm