By Sanjana Rahman Juthi. Today, 14 February, Valentine's Day is being celebrated around the world. Love teaches us to cherish our loved ones, and our nature and culture too. Love is not limited to people; our nature and culture are also part of it, bound to us by affection and an inseparable part of our lives.

On this special day of love, Bangladesh also observes another important day: Sundarbans Day. The Sundarbans is the largest mangrove forest in a saline coastal environment, known as the largest contiguous forest in the world, and a land of great natural beauty.

The Sundarbans is losing its beauty day by day. Because of people's lack of awareness, it is losing the beauty given to it by the Creator. Sundarbans Day is observed every 14 February to foster love for the forest and to raise public awareness of conserving its biodiversity.

On 14 February 2001, at the first National Sundarbans Conference, held under the Bangladesh Environment Movement on the initiative of Khulna University and the Khulna voluntary organisations Rupantar and Porosh, with the participation of 70 other environmental organisations in the country, 14 February was declared "Sundarbans Day".

The Sundarbans is interlaced like a net with tidal waterways, mudflats and small islands of salt-tolerant mangrove forest. It is home to 453 species of wildlife, including 290 birds, 120 fish, 42 mammals, 35 reptiles and eight amphibian species. It also has an abundance of sundari and gewa trees.

It is as though the Creator gave half of the world's natural beauty to the Sundarbans. On 21 May 1992 it was recognised as a Ramsar site, and on 6 December 1997 it was recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Many novels and films have also been made about the Sundarbans. Among them, "Sundarbane Saat Batsar" (Seven Years in the Sundarbans), by the celebrated writer Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, is one of the most thrilling novels. "Operation Sundarbans" is a thrilling Bangladeshi feature film about an operation to free the Sundarbans of pirates, made by Dipankar Dipon.

Every year countless tourists from home and abroad, charmed by its beauty, visit the Sundarbans and learn from nature. The government also benefits, tourist centres have grown up around the forest, and it has become a source of livelihood for local people.

A country is truly prosperous only when its nature and culture are safe. Just as we love our dear ones, we must love our nature. The Sundarbans is not just a forest: it protects us from disasters and gives oxygen, livelihoods and natural balance. So protecting the Sundarbans is our responsibility.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.