Satellite view of the mouths of the Ganges River, on the border of Bangladesh and India Photograph by USGS   Southern Asia: Western Bangladesh into India Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests   5,600 square miles (14,600 square kilometers) -- about the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined Critical/Endangered

· Life in a Swamp
· Special Features
· Did You Know?
· Wild Side
· Cause for Concern
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Life in a Swamp

Heat, humidity, and the cyclones that tear through this ecoregion act together to turn this area into swamp-forest soup. But it’s a fine place to live if you are a crocodile. You can spend your days feasting on fish and land animals that come too close while taking a drink. In this watery environment, hunting is good for fish-eating birds such as ospreys and gray-headed fish-eagles. Monkeys keep their feet dry and escape from tigers by staying in the treetops.

Special Features

The Sundarbans Freshwater Swamp Forests are located in the delta of two major rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. The silt deposited each year by the rivers makes this area especially productive. The water is only slightly brackish, and it becomes quite fresh during the rainy season when intruding salt water is pushed back by the huge volume of fresh water carried by the rivers. The wide variety of animals that live here are all well adapted to live in a humid, swampy environment.

All three species of crocodile that occur in the Indian subcontinent are found in this ecoregion. These include estuarine crocodiles, muggers, and gharials - one of the largest of all crocodilian species (males reach 23 feet or 7 m in length). The gharial is on the brink of extinction here because it is intensively hunted. Eggs are collected for medicinal purposes, and males are hunted for their bulbous-tipped snout, which is thought to be an aphrodisiac.

Wild Side

About 190 species of birds live here, including the waders that find their food in the shallow edges of the water. While you may not think of cats and water in the same place, this area is home to big cats such as endangered tigers and leopards, and smaller ones such as jungle cats, fishing cats, and leopard cats. Two otter species, the smooth-coated otter and Oriental small-clawed otter, swim and play in the murky water.

Cause for Concern

Hundreds of years of habitation and exploitation by one of the world’s densest human populations have exacted a heavy toll of this ecoregion. Most of the natural habitat has been converted to agriculture, and the remaining natural habitat is fragmented and degraded. Additional threats to the natural habitat come from oil spills (carried up the two rivers by incoming tides) and pollution from large cities. Along with habitat loss, illegal hunting has caused several local extinctions of key species such as swamp deer.

For more information on this ecoregion, go to the World Wildlife Fund Scientific Report.