Bangladesh: Natural Resource And Environment
Bangladesh is a country of about 147,570 square kilometers
, including inland and
estuarine water. 6.7% of the country are rivers and inland water bodies. The
congruence of the three mighty Himalayan rivers the Ganges, the Brahmaputra
and Meghna drain into the Bay of Bengal and the alluvial deposits carried down
mostly by the these mighty rivers for thousands of years have formed Bangladesh.
Bangladesh lies north of the Tropic of cancer, located between 20034 N and
26033 N latitudes and 88001 E and 94041 E longitudes. Located in the
northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, it is bordered by India on the west,
north and east, except for a small portion in the south east by Myanmar. The
Bay of Bengal occupies the entire south.
Nearly 50% of the country stands 10 meters above the sea level. Bangladesh has
three types of landscapes: floodplains spread over 80% of the countrys land area,
terraces covering 8% and hills dispersed over 12% of the land area of Bangladesh.
The three major rivers, the Padma, the Meghna and the Brahmaputra, and about
700 other rivers, distributaries, streams and canals totalled an enormous length of
waterareas. Rashid (1991) estimated the area to be about 24,000 km. Beels, baors,
haors1, rivers and canals, floodplains, estuaries etc made up this vast network of
wetlands which provide a huge refuge for wildlife, fish and other aquatic lives.
The tropical climate has made the country luxuriant in vegetation. The forests of
Bangladesh can broadly be classified as: (i) Tropical evergreen or semi-evergreen
forest in the eastern districts of Chittagong, Cox's Bazar, Sylhet, and the
Chittagong Hill Tracts region collectively known as Hill forest; (ii) Moist or dry
deciduous forest also known as Sal (Shorea robusta) forest located mainly in
central plains and the freshwater areas in the northeast region; and (iii) Tidal
mangrove forests along the coast, the Sundarbans in the southwest of the Khulna
and other mangroves in the Chittagong and Noakhali coastal belt.
Bangladesh harbors a diverse and extensive fauna and flora. IUCN (2000a)
reported 266 species of freshwater fish species and 442 marine species. The
fauna, especially the wildlife includes 125 species of mammals, 750 species of
birds, 500 species of fishes, 125 species of reptiles and 9 species of amphibian.
The number of species, especially the flora and invertebrates, of Bangladesh arenot known for certain. Khan (2001) reported that Chittagong zone alone possess
over 2,259 species of flowering plants. Hassan (2003) stated that there are over
700 species of flowering plants, 500 species of medicinal plants, 300 species of
mangrove and mangrove associate plants and 300 species of wetland plants in
Bangladesh.
by: abhikd
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