About our site

The Sundarbans World Heritage Site is the world’s largest contiguous mangrove forest, located in the delta formed by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers along the northern coast of the Bay of Bengal. Spanning parts of Bangladesh and India, this unique tidal ecosystem consists of dense mangrove forests, mudflats, tidal waterways, and estuaries that support exceptionally rich biodiversity.

The Sundarbans is internationally recognized for its ecological importance as a nursery and feeding ground for numerous fish, crustaceans, and aquatic species, while also providing habitat for threatened wildlife such as the Royal Bengal Tiger, estuarine crocodile, dolphins, and migratory birds. Beyond its ecological value, the forest protects coastal communities from cyclones, storm surges, and erosion, while supporting the livelihoods and cultural heritage of millions of people dependent on fisheries and forest resources.

Conservation and management activities include protected area management, wildlife sanctuaries, biodiversity monitoring, habitat restoration, anti-poaching initiatives, and community-based conservation programs. However, compared with terrestrial wildlife, relatively limited effort has been devoted to long-term and regular monitoring of aquatic biodiversity in the Sundarbans, despite its immense ecological and economic importance.

What we plan to achieve

Through eDNA Expeditions, our site aims to establish a long-term, non-invasive biodiversity monitoring framework for the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, with a particular focus on its aquatic ecosystems. By conducting repeated eDNA sampling during different seasons, we aim to generate baseline and temporal data that can support ecosystem-based management and conservation planning.

A key management question we hope to address is how seasonal environmental variation and changing salinity regimes affect the distribution and diversity of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, and other estuarine and mangrove-associated organisms, including threatened and commercially important species. We are also interested in detecting rare or cryptic species and understanding shifts in species assemblages over time within this dynamic mangrove ecosystem, as well as how climate change, salinity intrusion, habitat degradation, and anthropogenic pressures are shaping aquatic biodiversity.

This work directly supports local and national conservation objectives by strengthening biodiversity assessment capacity, improving scientific data availability for protected area management and Red List assessments, and promoting evidence-based decision-making for sustainable fisheries and ecosystem conservation.

In addition, the project will engage students, researchers, local communities, and citizen scientists, helping build regional capacity in eDNA applications and increasing public awareness of the importance of conserving the Sundarbans. The initiative will also contribute to the doctoral research of a PhD student investigating long-term biodiversity dynamics and the application of eDNA as a transformative tool for monitoring mangrove ecosystems under climate change.