25% Of Bangladeshi Sundarbans Mangrove Forests Damaged Or Destroyed By Cyclone - AFP

A quarter of Bangladesh's Sunderbans forest has been damaged by a deadly cyclone that left a trail of devastation in the vast mangrove swamp, a top forestry official said Saturday.

The world's largest mangrove forest bore the brunt of the cyclone that smashed into Bangladesh on November 15, killing more than 3,200 people and wiping out thousands of villages.

"The cyclone has left huge devastation in the Sunderbans unseen for decades. Some 1,500 square kilometres (600 square miles) of the forest was damaged," chief government forest conservation official A.K.M. Shamsuddin said. "At least seven percent of the (Bangladeshi portion of the) forest was severely damaged... while another 17 to 18 percent was partially damaged," he told AFP, adding initial satellite images showed the extent of the destruction.

The 10,000 square kilometre forest straddles the borders of Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state and lies on the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta.

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