The Bay of Bengal, a sea in the north-eastern arm of the
Indian Ocean, is located between 5°N and 22°N latitudes and 80°E and 100°E longitudes. Triangular in shape, it is bordered by Sri Lanka and India in the west, Bangladesh in the north, Myanmar and Thailand in the east, and the southern part extends to
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Bay of Bengal has an area of about 2.2 million sq km and the average depth is 2,600 m with a maximum depth of 5,258 m.
The major rivers in India that flows to the Bay are the Ayeyarwady,
Ganges, Meghna,
Brahmaputra,
Mahanadi,
Godavari, Krishna, and
Cauvery. The Sunderbans mangrove forest is formed at the delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers on the Bay of Bengal. The main ports are at Vishakhapatnam,
Paradip,
Chennai, Pondicherry and
Kolkata.
