Frederic Peter Layard News Today

The Sundarbans is the world’s largest mangrove forest and locals generally identify the area as “Badabon” or “Athero Bhatir Desh” (land of the eighteen tides).

A Hindu village in a clearing, the Sundarbans. 1843. Sketch by Frederic Peter Layard (1818-1891). Worked up from an earlier sketch of January 1839. Tilman Henckell [Judge and Magistrate of Jessore] at an early period of his magistracy, turned his attention to the Sundarbans, and he was the founder of the system of reclamation which is now converting these great forests into immense rice tracts.  The route from the eastern districts to Calcutta passed at that time by nearly the same river-cours...