Scientists from the Zoological Society of London reported that the natural habitat of the Bengal tiger is disappearing due to human development and global temperature rise that eliminates the tigers native habitat from the natural protection of mangrove forests due to increased tidal waves and cyclones in an article in the Jan. 11, 2013, issue of the journal Remote Sensing.
The Sundarbans is the largest block of continuous mangrove forest in the world. The area is a critical tiger habitat; one of only a handful of remaining forests big enough to hold several hundred tigers. The Sundarbans is also the home to almost 500 species of reptile, fish, bird and mammals that are presently endangered.
Deterioration in mangrove health is occurring in the Sundarbans that has resulted in as much as 200 meters of coast disappearing in a single year.
Mangrove forests are unusually resistance to the detrimental effects of global temperature rise but the increase in the number of tsunamis and cyclones in the Sundarbans area of India and Bangladesh has resulted in a rapid and unpreventable loss of Bengal tiger habitat.
The Wildlife Conservation Society announced a worldwide increase in tiger populations in 2012 that did not include the Bengal tigers in the Sundarbans.
The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert website the date of publication.
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