A new study, carried out by WWF, suggests a bleak picture for the Royal Bengal Tigers located along the along the Sundarbans coast in Bangla.

As Colby Loucks, WWF-US deputy director of conservation science, says:

“It’s disheartening to imagine that the Sundarbans – which means ‘beautiful forest’ in Bangla – could be gone this century, along with its tigers. If we don’t take steps to address the impacts of climate change on the Sundarbans, the only way its tigers will survive this century is with scuba gear.”

Unlike in other areas of the world the main threat to the tigers’ habitat is sea level rises instead of deforestation. Up to 400 tigers live along the Sundarbans coast and, whilst it may seem like a small number, the number represents approximately 10% of the remaining Bengal Tigers living in the wild today.

The study suggests that a 28cm rise in sea level is possible by 1970, at which point the whole area would become submerged and uninhabitable.