According to local sources, everyday thousands of fruits of various species plants come in Shamnagar area floating with river water from the Sundarbans.
The people of the area collect the fruits and use those as fuel. As a result new plants cannot grow and the plants of the Sundarbans are decreasing day by day.
There are a total of 334 species belonging to 245 generation of angiosperms and ferns in the Sundarbans and adjacent areas.
The entire mangrove forest is called Sundarban owing to the dominance of the tree species Heritiera fomes, locally known as sundari because of its elegance.
Sundarban flora is characterized by of 26 True Mangrove species and 29 mangrove associates species have been identified.
Characteristic mangrove species include garjan, kankra, goran and baen.
Of the identified 23 invasive species, 19 are native or naturalized to Sundarbans mangrove. Invasive’ abundance, diversity and rate of invasion were highest at the riverbanks and gradually decreased with increased proximity to the forests.
The Sundarban Mangrove Ecosystem is the region of transition between the fresh water of the Ganges distributaries system and the saline water of the Bay of Bengal.
The river system of Hugli - Haldi, Muriganga, Saptamukhi, Thakuran, Matla, and Goasaba bring a huge sediment load with which is deposited at delta.
Over the past decades, invasive species have spread significantly in the mangrove ecosystem. But recently, the area of the mangrove has decreased,
The fruits of Geoan, Sundari, Matgaran, Garjan, Keora and Hetal fall in the river and the water bears those to the local people.
During a recent visit, Dhaka Tribune found the people of Munshiganj, Harinagar, Gabura and Padmapukura were collecting the fruits from the river water in coastal area busy in processing for use as fuel.
Pijush Bawali, an expert on forest who is working on Sundarbans, said the people of the area were not alert about the fruits. They should be trained up.
“If the fruits can be used as seed, the areas of the Sundarbans will increase,” he said.
Bili Rani, Astomi Rani and Nilima Rani of Munshiganj said they knew usage of fruits as fuel was harmful. But they had no alternative as they had no another things for fireplace.
Pijush said: “Another Sundarbnas can be created by growing plants from the seeds of the fruits.”
There are several NGOs in the area. They bring money from foreign donours in the name of saving Sundarbans and misappropriate the fund, alleged Pijush.
When contacted, Md Shoaib Khan, Assistant Conservator of Forests, Satkhira Range, said usage of fruits as fuel had decreased recently as they had taken programme to make people in the area alert.
