Thousands to march against coal plant threat to Bangladesh's Sundarbans forest

Organisers hope march from the capital to the heritage-listed mangrove forest will persuade Bangladesh's government to drop backing for the power plants

Thousands of Bangladeshis will march from the country's capital, Dhaka, to the world's biggest mangrove forest next week in protest at plans to build two coal-power plants on the edge of the World Heritage-listed forest.

The organisers of the so-called long march on 10 March hope to persuade the Bangladeshi government to drop its backing for construction of the plants near the Sundarbans, an area of rice paddies, shrimp farms and vast mangrove forests.