Dhaka, Oct. 16 -- The Sundarbans is changing from the ground up. More than half its seedlings died between 2010 and 2020, while those that survived grew rapidly.

Beneath the world's largest mangrove forest, a quieter shift is under way: as rising salinity and dwindling freshwater take their toll, Gewa and Kankra are gaining ground while the once-dominant Sundari struggles to hold its place.

A study titled Ecological Influences on Regeneration Dynamics in the Sundarbans, Bangladesh: Exploring Biotic and Abiotic Factors Across Time and Space, published in January 2025, found that 52.89 percent of seedlings died between 2010 and 2020. In the 1990s, the average seedling mortality rate was 40 percent.

The losses were starkly different acros...