What and where are the Sundarbans?

The world's largest mangrove forest, covering about 10,000 km² of land and water on the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta, with around 60% in Bangladesh and the rest in India.

What opportunities does the Sundarbans coast offer for human occupation?

Fertile delta soils for rice, rich fisheries and shrimp farming, and forest resources such as honey, timber and thatching leaves, as well as tourism based on the Bengal tiger.

Why is the Sundarbans coast at high risk from tropical cyclones?

It lies at the head of the funnel-shaped Bay of Bengal, which concentrates storm surges onto a very flat, densely populated delta only a few metres above sea level.

What was the impact of Cyclone Sidr on Bangladesh in 2007?

Sidr struck the south-west coast in November 2007 with a storm surge of up to about 5 to 6 m, killing about 3,400 people and damaging much of the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

How did Cyclone Aila in 2009 affect communities in the Sundarbans area?

Its surge breached and overtopped the embankments around polders in Khulna, flooding farmland and drinking-water ponds with salt water that affected crops and health for years.

AQA A-Level Geography 7037

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Coastal Systems and Landscapes

The Sundarbans and the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta

3 things to know
Component 1

Overview

The Sundarbans mangrove coast of the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta as a contrasting coastal landscape beyond the UK, covering its depositional processes, cyclone and sea level risks, polders and shrimp farming, and how its communities respond.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Process

How do mangroves act as mitigation against coastal hazards in the Sundarbans?

Process

How does shrimp farming increase risk in the Sundarbans?

Process

Why is the Sundarbans a low-energy depositional coast?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What and where are the Sundarbans?
Model answer
The world's largest mangrove forest, covering about 10,000 km² of land and water on the Ganges–Brahmaputra delta, with around 60% in Bangladesh and the rest in India.
2
Why is the Sundarbans a low-energy depositional coast?
Model answer
Huge volumes of river sediment are deposited in a maze of tidal channels and islands, where mangroves trap mud and build up the land.
3
What opportunities does the Sundarbans coast offer for human occupation?
Model answer
Fertile delta soils for rice, rich fisheries and shrimp farming, and forest resources such as honey, timber and thatching leaves, as well as tourism based on the Bengal tiger.
4
Why is the Sundarbans coast at high risk from tropical cyclones?
Model answer
It lies at the head of the funnel-shaped Bay of Bengal, which concentrates storm surges onto a very flat, densely populated delta only a few metres above sea level.
5
What was the impact of Cyclone Sidr on Bangladesh in 2007?
Model answer
Sidr struck the south-west coast in November 2007 with a storm surge of up to about 5 to 6 m, killing about 3,400 people and damaging much of the Sundarbans mangrove forest.
6
How did Cyclone Aila in 2009 affect communities in the Sundarbans area?
Model answer
Its surge breached and overtopped the embankments around polders in Khulna, flooding farmland and drinking-water ponds with salt water that affected crops and health for years.

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