Fauna of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve (Throughout Color Illustrations)

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The Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) is a taxonomic research organization, established on 1st July, 1916, dedicated itself to exploring and documenting the country's faunal resources. It was a long felt need to update the faunal data of the Sundarban Biosphere Reserve. This is the first consolidated pictorial document on the fauna of the Indian part of these deltaic mangrove islands, prepared with the latest published information from Protista to Mammalia, and documents over 2600 species of animals. Moreover, it records the discovery of new species exclusively from this vulnerable part of the world, as well as the unique Royal Bengal tiger, threats related to climate change and the socio-cultural profile of this UNESCO designated World Heritage site.

Dr. Kailash Chandra is presently Director of Zoological Survey of India under Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change, Govt of India. Kailash Chandra is known zoologist working on fauna of India particularly on beetles for the last 35 years. He has authored more than 20 books and published more than 300 scientific papers in national and international journals.

Dr. J.R.B. Alfred, did his M.Sc. from Karnataka University and Ph.D from Madurai University. He is the Former Director of the Zoological Survey of India, and is the President of Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS) and President of Zoological Society of Kolkata. His work ranges from fresh water insect to Mammals with special reference to the Hoolock Gibbon.

Bulganin Mitra is an Entomologist. He has gained 37 years of research experience in taxonomy of Coeloptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera and published over 250 scientific publications. Presently he is working on the role of insect pollinators on the conservation of major mangrove species in Sundarban, West Bengal.

Biswajit Roy Chowdhury is the Founder Secretary of Nature Environment & Wildlife Society (NEWS).

He is a member of State Wildlife Board of West Bengal and INC- IUCN. The Co-author is also a Senior Fellow in the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the well known magazine, Environ and also an ace wildlife photographer. His has authored 14 books on wildlife and Natural History.

Exploration of ecosystems and conservation areas in India for discovering and documenting their faunal diversity has been an integral part of the mandatory scientific action plans and programmes of Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). Zoological: I Survey of India, a premier research organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Govt. of India, New Delhi, has been generating the baseline information on the faunal diversity of India since its inception on 1 July, 1916. ZSI has brought out, over the period of more than a century, as many as 1500 scientific documents and many hundreds of research papers on Indian faunal diversity. ZSI has developed need-based, fauna-related reference works, such as the species inventories of selected wetlands or other conservation areas, on a prionty basis, to be incorporated into the information system of wetlands/conservation areas, enabling conservationists and Protected Area managers to formulate strategic Management Action Plans for conservation.

Zoological Survey of India is now bringing out an updated account on the faunal diversity of the deltaic mangrove islands of the Indian Sundarban. Drained by the two major rivers, Ganges and Brahmaputra, of Bay of Bengal, the Sundarban constitutes the world's biggest delta harboring the largest single block of tidal halophytic mangrove forest, covering an area of 26,000 sq.km in India and Bangladesh. Sundarban, or the "Sundari" forests of mangroves, supports an exceptional level of biodiversity in both the terrestrial and marine environments, comprising several hundreds of aquatic and terrestrial organisms, including significant populations of globally endangered cat species, the unique Royal Bengal tiger, Ganges and Irrawaddy dolphins, estuarine crocodiles and the critically endangered endemic river terrapin (Batagur baska). However, multifarious human interventions as poaching of wildlife, felling of mangrove trees for fuel wood and other uses, ever-increasing concentration of pollutants in the aquatic and sediment matrices in the last three or four decades have been causing the gradual environmental degradation and decline or loss of biodiversity in the Sundarban. Coupled with the human disturbances, the effect of climate change impacting the faunal diversity of Sundarban has also become a matter of great concern among the conservationists and naturalists. In this context, ZSI considered it imperative to update our knowledge on the faunal diversity of Indian Sundarban, and this document is the product of that long-felt need.

The present document provides the consolidated and updated information on the faunal diversity of Sundarban Biosphere Reserve, dealing with more than 2600 species of fauna, from Protista to Mammalia, including the new species discovered and described from this mangrove ecosystem, protected animals such as Royal Bengal tiger and others, as well as threa faced by them due to effect of climate change. A narrative on socio-cultural profile of this UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site has also been given in the document.