The forest is named after the sundari tree, the most populous in the area. The forest itself only constitutes about 40% of the area of the Sundarbans: Around 50% of it is water, and the rest is comprised of sand dunes and mudflats.
The Sundarbans National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the late 1980s, and three wildlife sanctuaries set up in the Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans were honored in 1997. The entire area is considered a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
