India to sign protocol with Bangaldesh on Sunderbans

India is soon to sign a protocol with neighboring Bangladesh in a bid to protect the Sunderbans which is part of both the countries, sources said on Tuesday.

"Details are being formulated and soon both the countries will be signatories to the protocol. The aim is to protect the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world," the sources said.

The Sunderbans lies in the vast delta on the Bay of Bengal formed by the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers across southern Bangaldesh and the eastern Indian state of West Bengal.

The seasonally flooded forests lie inland from the mangrove forests on the coastal fringe and covers 10,000 square kilometers of which about 6,000 are in Bangladesh.

The Sunderbans also serves a crucial function as a protective barrier for the millions of inhabitants in and around West Bengal' s capital Kolkata against the floods that result from the cyclones that are a regular occurrence on this coast.

Source: Xinhua