The Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, is shared between Bangladesh and which Indian state?

The correct answer is West Bengal. The Sundarbans, formed at the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers where they empty into the Bay of Bengal, is the largest mangrove forest in the world and is split between southwestern Bangladesh and the southern part of the Indian state of West Bengal. The larger share of the forest lies within Bangladesh, and this portion is separately inscribed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site under the name 'The Sundarbans', while the Indian portion is separately recognised as the Sundarbans National Park, itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987. The forest is globally significant as the habitat of the Bengal tiger and numerous other species adapted to its brackish tidal ecosystem. Odisha is incorrect because, although it lies along India's eastern coastline and hosts other important wetland ecosystems such as Chilika Lake, it does not contain any part of the Sundarbans, which lies further north along the coast. Assam is incorrect because it is a landlocked northeastern state without a coastline and therefore cannot host a coastal mangrove delta system like the Sundarbans. Tripura is incorrect for a similar reason: it is a small northeastern state bordering Bangladesh on land but has no coastal or deltaic mangrove ecosystem of this kind. A frequent exam confusion arises from students knowing that several eastern and northeastern Indian states border Bangladesh and assuming any of them could share the Sundarbans, when in fact only West Bengal's southern coastal districts, such as South 24 Parganas, actually contain this ecosystem. The revision takeaway is to anchor the Sundarbans firmly to the Bangladesh-West Bengal coastal delta, distinct from Tripura or Assam's land borders and from Odisha's separate coastal wetlands.