A group of women collecting tiger prawn seed on the river ââ¬ËMatlaââ¬â¢. The Major problem threatening the Sunderban mangrove ecology is the collection of tiger prawn seeds. The Sunderban has a mono-crop agricultural pattern, which means that the people of the region have no alternative sources of income from farming. Thus, burdened by poverty, over two lakh people have turned to collecting tiger prawn seeds, using nylon nets, which are dragged along the river banks. In the process, apart from destroying mangrove seedlings and eliminating the possibility of a regeneration of mangroves along the river banks, at least 74 species of fish are also destroyed.
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