The Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal, the largest bay in the world,^[3] forms the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Roughly triangular, it is bordered mostly by India and Sri Lanka to the west, Bangladesh to the north, and Myanmar (Burma) and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to the east.

The Bay of Bengal occupies an area of 2,172,000 square kilometres (839,000 sq mi). A number of large rivers – the Ganges and its tributaries such as the Padma and Hooghly, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries such as the Jamuna and Meghna, other rivers such as the Irrawaddy River, Godavari, Mahanadi, Krishna and Kaveri flow into the Bay of Bengal. Among the important ports areChennai, Chittagong, Kolkata, Mongla, Paradip, Tuticorin, Visakhapatnam and Yangon

Physiography of Sundarbans

The mangrove-dominated Ganges Delta – the Sundarbans – is a complex ecosystem comprising one of the three largest single tracts of mangrove forests of the world. Situated mostly in Bangladesh, a small portion of it lies in India. The Indian part of the forest is estimated to be about 19 percent, while the Bangladeshi part is 81 percent. To the south the forest meets the Bay of Bengal; to the east it is bordered by the Baleswar River and to the north there is a sharp interface with intensively cultivated land. The natural drainage in the upstream areas, other than the main river channels, is everywhere impeded by extensive embankments and polders. The Sundarbans was originally measured (about 200 years ago) to be of about 16,700 square kilometres (6,400 sq mi). Now it has dwindled into about 1/3 of the original size. The total land area today is 4,143 square kilometres (1,600 sq mi), including exposedsandbars with a total area of 42 square kilometres (16 sq mi); the remaining water area of 1,874 square kilometres (724 sq mi) encompasses rivers, small streams and canals. Rivers in the Sundarbans are meeting places of salt water and freshwater. Thus, it is a region of transition between the freshwater of the rivers originating from the Ganges and the saline water of the Bay of Bengal.^[13]

The Sundarbans along the Bay of Bengal has evolved over the millennia through natural deposition of upstream sediments accompanied by intertidal segregation. The physiography is dominated by deltaic formations that include innumerable drainage lines associated with surface and subaqueous levees, splays and tidal flats. There are also marginal marshes above mean tide level, tidal sandbars and islands with their networks of tidal channels, subaqueous distal bars and proto-delta clays and silt sediments. The Sundarbans' floor varies from 0.9 to 2.11 metres (3.0 to 6.9 ft) above sea level.^[14]

Biotic factors here play a significant role in physical coastal evolution, and for wildlife a variety of habitats have developed which include beaches, estuaries, permanent and semi-permanent swamps, tidal flats, tidal creeks, coastal dunes, back dunes and levees. The mangrove vegetation itself assists in the formation of new landmass and the intertidal vegetation plays a significant role in swamp morphology. The activities of mangrove fauna in the intertidal mudflats develop micromorphological features that trap and hold sediments to create a substratum for mangrove seeds. The morphology and evolution of the eolian dunes is controlled by an abundance of xerophytic and halophytic plants. Creepers, grasses and sedges stabilise sand dunes and uncompacted sediments. The Sunderbans mudflats (Banerjee, 1998) are found at the estuary and on the deltaic islands where low velocity of river and tidal current occurs. The flats are exposed in low tides and submerged in high tides, thus being changed morphologically even in one tidal cycle. The interior parts of the mudflats serve as a perfect home for mangroves.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundarbans

The History Of Sundarbans

The history of the area can be traced back to 200–300 AD. A ruin of a city built by Chand Sadagar has been found in the Baghmara Forest Block. During the Mughal period, the Mughal Kings leased the forests of the Sundarbans to nearby residents. Many criminals took refuge in the Sundarbans from the advancing armies of Emperor Akbar. Many have been known to be attacked by tigers.^[7] Many of the buildings which were built by them later fell to hands of Portuguese pirates, salt smugglers and dacoits in the 17th century. Evidence of the fact can be traced from the ruins at Netidhopani and other places scattered all over Sundarbans.^[8] The legal status of the forests underwent a series of changes, including the distinction of being the first mangrove forest in the world to be brought under scientific management. The area was mapped first in Persian, by the Surveyor General as early as 1764 following soon after proprietary rights were obtained from the Mughal Emperor Alamgir II by the British East India Company in 1757. Systematic management of this forest tract started in the 1860s after the establishment of a Forest Department in the Province of Bengal, in British India. The management was entirely designed to extract whatever treasures were available, but labour and lower management mostly were staffed by locals, as the British had no expertise or adaptation experience in mangrove forests.^[9]

The first Forest Management Division to have jurisdiction over the Sundarbans was established in 1869. In 1875 a large portion of the mangrove forests was declared asreserved forests under the Forest Act, 1865 (Act VIII of 1865). The remaining portions of the forests were declared a reserve forest the following year and the forest, which was so far administered by the civil administration district, was placed under the control of the Forest Department. A Forest Division, which is the basic forest management and administration unit, was created in 1879 with the headquarters in Khulna, Bangladesh. The first management plan was written for the period 1893–98.^[10][11]

In 1911, it was described as a tract of waste country which had never been surveyed nor had the census been extended to it. It then stretched for about 266 kilometres (165 mi) from the mouth of the Hugli to the mouth of the Meghna river and was bordered inland by the three settled districts of the 24 Parganas, Khulna and Bakerganj. The total area (including water) was estimated at 16,900 square kilometres (6,526 sq mi). It was a water-logged jungle, in which tigers and other wild beasts abounded. Attempts at reclamation had not been very successful. The Sundarbans was everywhere intersected by river channels and creeks, some of which afforded water communication throughout the Bengal region both for steamers and for native ships.

Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundarbans

Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh - the World's Longest Beach

 Bangladesh / Cox's Bazar

Image © 2002 AFP PHOTO/Jewel Samad

Bangladesh's fledgling but troubled tourism industry is slowly luring foreign and domestic travellers, industry officials say. One of the most popular destinations this winter was this beach resort town of Cox's Bazar on the Bay of Bengal, which drew sun-worshippers from as far away as Europe and Southeast Asia.

"Foreigners come here, but we cannot offer everything they need. But still they enjoy the beach and of course the warmth of the people here," said Mahbubul Alam Akash, who hires out colourful beach chairs and sun umbrellas. "A large number of Bangladeshis crowd the town now and their number has been increasing over the past years... we will find time to breathe once the official tourism season is over."

There are no official figures on the numbers of visitors to Cox's Bazar this winter, but hotel owners said the 10,000 rooms available were full almost seven days a week in December and a second rush is expected for the Eid-al Adha festival February 13. "The winter season helps us to go through rest of the year, when the number of travellers drop dramatically along with revenue," said an official at a major hotel.

Cox's Bazar got its first five-star accomodation in December, a hotel overlooking the world's largest natural white sand beach and basking in its spectacular sunsets.

The maximum temperature here in the winter is only about 12 degrees Celsius (53.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but tourists on the seashore enjoy cups of tea, snacks or the very popular green coconut water.

A spokesman for the state-owned Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC), told AFP tourism was growing every year, with the government doing its best to lure travellers to the South Asian nation.

BPC statistics show just 11,179 people visited the country in 1992, but the figure jumped massively in 2000 to 207,199 visitors, who brought in about 2.65 billion taka (about 46 million USD) in foreign exchange. No figures are available for 2001 and 2002. Of total travellers in 2000, nearly 18.56 percent came to Bangladesh for pleasure visits, 16.47 percent were on business and the remainder - nearly 70 percent - had multiple reasons for arriving. Britons, Americans, Koreans, Japanese, Indians, Nepalese and Pakistanis topped the list of foreign travellers.

The Bangladesh Monitor, a fortnightly tabloid focusing on the tourism industry, said Bangladesh was a promising destination for foreign tourists, but infrastructure problems, including hotel accommodation, were a major impediment to growth.

"Infrastructure development is the key to expansion of the tourism sector," said Hasan Mansur, managing director of travel company, The Guide Tours Ltd. "People did not think of going to the Banderban hill district, but now that we built some facilities there is no dearth of travellers to the area."

Private hotels have recently been built in the picturesque southeastern Banderban district, where a tribal insurgency ended in 1997 with a peace treaty. The government recently handed over some of BPC's motels and restaurants in Cox's Bazar and elsewhere to private management to increase revenue as well as ensure better facilities for tourists.

Locals, too, are saving their taka to travel, choosing destinations like Cox's Bazar and islands in the Bay of Bengal, as well as the Sunderbans, the world's largest mangrove forests, the tea-growing Sylhet district, the southeastern hill tracts region and historical sites.

"The growth of Bangladeshis travelling within the country is significant and they also include those who would normally prefer holidaying in Bangkok or Singapore," Mansur said. "The change of attitude is positive, but we have to ensure we can hold on to them."

Such efforts have not gone unnoticed by visitors, including one Westerner who spent time in the southwestern Chandpur district where the Padma and Meghna rivers join. "Your whole country is beautiful and all it needs is proper protection as well as some facilities to draw tourists," he said. "I loved the villages, its people, their kindness and some specially-made foods they said were only available during winter."

source:http://thingsasian.com/story/coxs-bazar-bangladesh-worlds-longest-beach