TITLE:
Is the Sundarbans of Bangladesh in a State of Pollution?
AUTHORS:
Mahmood Hossain, Chameli Saha, Sanjoy Saha, Hawlader Mohammed Nurul Islam, Mushfiq Ahmed, Tanvir Ahmed, Abdul Halim Farhad Sikder, Md. Mutasim Billah
KEYWORDS:
Ecosystem, Mangroves, Monitoring, Pollution, Soil, Sundarbans
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Forestry,
Vol.14 No.1,
November
30,
2023
ABSTRACT: The Sundarbans is the world’s most extensive natural
mangrove forest and home to various natural resources. The population in the
vicinity has increased, causing more dependency on the resources of the
Sundarbans. The increasing industrialization, urbanization, aquaculture,
intensive agricultural practices, seaports, tourism facilities, and so on in
the peripheral areas of the Sundarbans have made significant changes in the
surrounding and upstream land uses of the Sundarbans. This situation may have
detrimental influences on the ecosystem components of the Sundarbans.
Therefore, it is highly demanded to prepare a piece of baseline information or
database of different sources of pollution and their present status in the
various components of the Sundarbans. This effort helps to identify issues and
concerns, determine the key elements of the ecosystem to monitor the level or
overall quality of the Sundarbans ecosystem. The present study systematically
collects the potential sources of pollution, types, and current levels in the
ecosystem components of the Sundarbans using academic databases, libraries, and
online resources. Discharge of industrial waste into water, soil and air, heavy
metal pollution, use of agrochemicals, oil (refined and crude) pollution,
plastic materials from urban areas, and tourism are the major issues and
concerns related to the sustainability of the Sundarbans ecosystem. The air
quality of the Sundarbans is in good condition with 0 - 50 AQI of Bangladesh.
While BOD, COD, TDS, TSS varied from 2.0 to 3.8 mg/L, 21.6 to 416 mg/L, 146.9
to 24,100 mg/L and 54 to 155 mg/L, respectively. Soil EC, organic carbon, total
nitrogen, and total phosphorus ranged from 3.01 - 5.82 mS/cm, 1.41% - 2.69%, 0.51 - 1.05 mg/g, and 0.32 - 0.51 mg/g respectively. The air, water and soil quality parameters varied
with the sites and seasons and not much at the state of contamination. Indeed,
we must pay much attention to the Sundarbans’ air, water and soil quality with the massive and progressive change of
the nearby land use pattern.