- a.Peninsular Sal forest as found in West Medinipur district
- b.Tropical moist deciduous forest as found in Buxa Tiger Reserve
- c.Mangrove forest as found in Sunderbans
- d.Evergreen Temperate forest as found in Lava area of Kalimpong
Answer: (C) Mangrove forest as found in Sunderbans
Per hectare, mangroves store more carbon than any land forest, typically three to five times as much, because besides the trees themselves their waterlogged, oxygen-poor mud locks away large amounts of organic carbon to a depth of several metres. This is called 'blue carbon'. So the Sundarbans mangrove outranks the dry sal forest of Paschim Medinipur, the moist deciduous forest of Buxa and the temperate evergreen forest of Lava. Exam links: blue carbon ecosystems are mangroves, salt marshes and seagrass meadows; the Indian Sundarbans is a National Park, World Heritage Site (1987), Biosphere Reserve and Ramsar site (2019); West Bengal has the largest mangrove cover in India (over 40% of the total), followed by Gujarat; the MISHTI scheme (Budget 2023) promotes mangrove plantation.