The Sundarbans stretch 80 km (50 mi), from western Bangladeshi into northeastern India.

It is one of the largest mangrove forests in the world, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The Sundarbans cover an area of 10,500 sq km, of which about one-third is covered in water/marsh areas. The remaining two-thirds includes some of the last remaining stands of the jungles that once covered the region.

Rivers in the Sundarbans are meeting places of salt water and freshwater, making it a region of transition between the freshwater of the rivers originating from the Ganges and the saline water of the Bay of Bengal.

Since 1966 the Sundarbans have been a wildlife sanctuary, and it is estimated that there are now 400 Royal Bengal tigers and about 30,000 spotted deer in the area, in addition to many other species.