VARIATION OF COX'S BAZAR

Cox’s Bazar doesn’t enjoy that much of governmental patronages, whatever that stands upon is mostly private investment and finance. Still it is world’s one of the notable tourist spots on the earth having pure aesthetic attractions. There are few rated beaches in this world, most of them in United States & Australia, one in Thailand, one in Malaysia and some others in Europe. Cox’s Bazar is not contained by that list. But the difference is made only by the lovers of Cox’s Bazar, whoever loves it, enjoys going there for more and more times and the attraction doesn’t fade. This is the specialty of Cox’s Bazar. In 2005 I met a guy in the Seagull beach, who was visiting Cox’s Bazar with his wife. He told me he has visited 6 of the world’s ranked beaches, those are in Australia, but Cox’s Bazar is the one most exclusive to him and he was visiting it for 13th time then.

 About the unquestioned adoration of Cox’s Bazar lovers, it’s not like it is loved because it belongs to our country. It’s adored because of the atmosphere and the pure aesthetic attraction that has been told earlier. The Cox’s Bazar oriented tourism is now to be considered in a larger scale. Government tourism policies and BPC strategies of 90s were may be suitable for the then circumstance, but the situation has gone through a promotion. Cox’s Bazar and Saint Martins Island, which is now formidably occupying the top of the ‘World’s New Seven Wonders’ list, evaluation over them will be a confused, if they don’t get enough attention of the government.

COX'SBAZAR in BANGLADESH

The Cox oriented tourism scenario has much changed in’s Bazar the last one and half decade. The place along with St. Martins was used to deal with a crowd that was considerably seasonal. But now, it can be merely stated that there’s no specific season in there. We have official weekends of two days. But whenever this is extended with a day or two, it becomes tricky for Cox’s Bazar hotel managers and officials to take a break in the rush of incoming phone calls for room reservation. Occasions of two Eid days and Durga Puja also send a huge crowd to hit Cox’s Bazar and St. Martins.

People’s mentality over tourism has changed. Affordable families of a tour now no more like to pass the leave of four days at a row at home. Their preference is Cox’s Bazar and St. Martin. This change of people’s mentality has urged the situation for Cox’s Bazar to become what now it is. But the stance of the government and its change has not been clearly visible.

To elaborate on possible governmental efforts over Cox’s Bazar, we have to throw light distinctively. There are a lot of grounds which government has to take care of. First of all there is the security which is considerably impressive. The law & order management strategy constantly changes with the rush of crowd as we can recall the deployment of extra 6,000 troops by police in last October, when the town was nearly shattered by an estimated 2 million tourists in a week. Several high ranking officials of Police including the Inspector General himself paid their visits to look after the management and that is appreciable.

Still there are ‘but’s over governmental efforts. If we focus on the accommodation structure, we see that the timeline between 80s and the mid of 90s, the tourist accommodation of Cox’s Bazar was solely controlled by hotels and motels owned and governed by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC). Privately built hotels were nothing to tell about. But after the time started to change, BPC was not the one to contend with that change. Rather BPC has lost control from some of their major institutions. We recall the Silver Spoon, Inc. takeover of Motel Probal in late 2002. A large area inside Motel Probal acquisitions has been fully utilized by Silver Spoon, Inc., where they had set bar-b-q cottages, punting facilities etc. Now private investments are always welcomed, but we also should ask BPC that why they couldn’t do what Silver Spoon, Inc. did. BPC however retook the Motel Probal in 2005, but they couldn’t urge the ground to be under their influence long lastingly. Presently the Cox’s Bazar tourism is nearly in its height and BPC should now think about the opportunity which they have gradually forgone.

What Cox’s Bazar and Saint Martin need is a full government patronage, especially over the beach management, intra city communication (both transportation and streets), tourism promotion that is marketing the spot and attracting more and more investors, Bangladeshi investors should be prioritized.

Gharial in Sundarban

Gharial one of the most primitive living crocodiles, Gavialis gangeticus, family Crocodylidae, class Reptilia. It is so-called because its head with snout is similar in appearance to that of a horse. According to some, however, the name derives from the appearance of a large hollow cartilaginous octagonal protuberance on the end of its snout near the nasal cavity, resembling an earthen pot, or Ghara. The specific trival name is due to its presence in the river Ganges. Gharial is a shy and benign aquatic reptile measuring 4 to 7 m in length. This animal is distributed in the major rivers of Indian subcontinent. In Bangladesh it was once distributed in Padma, Jamuna, Brahmaputra and their tributaries. However, the animal is now a very rare sight. Fossil forms have been described from Siwalik Hills and Narbodavalleys from Pliocene deposits. This group of animals have maintained their stature unaltered since their appearance in the Jurassic Era. Long and slender snout is a very prominent feature of Gharial. The upper jaw houses about 50 small sharp teeth, while the lower jaw has about 48. The teeth are adapted to prey on common fishes and aquatic birds. Sometimes it seizes goats and dogs which visit the bank of rivers. Forty or more eggs are deposited on the bank of river in holes scooped out and afterwards covered by sand. The young appears in March-April and measures about 40 cm including the tail. Unlike other crocodiles, Gharials spend little time basking on the land. Their limbs are not well adapted for walking on land like their cousins. Their forelimbs are conspicuously shorter and smaller than their hind limbs. All the five fingers are webbed and well-developed. The tail is robust and strong, and adapted for swimming. The Hindus used to sacrifice Gharials to the god Vishnu. It was regarded as a very sacred animal and they would not slaughter them for other purposes. With the change of their outlook, people started to poach them for their armoured skin. Ladies bag, shoes, decoration pieces, etc made of Gharial skin fetch lucrative sums abroad. As a result, their population has declined at an alarming rate. The species is now listed as critically endangered in Bangladesh.

BUDGET FOR SUNDARBAN

 ~BUDGET FOR SUNDARBAN~
KHULNA, June 28: Khulna City Corporation today (Tuesday) has announced its annual budget for Tk. 1.796 billion for the fiscal 2011-2012. The proposed budget is Tk 204.4 million more than the previous year's.
Khulna City Corporation mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque announced the proposed budget at a function arranged at its conference room before the journalists, councillors and elites of the city.
The proposed budget of Tk 1.796 billion of which 548.3 million will be spent out of corporations own fund while the rest 1.248 billion will be spent from government allocation.
Like the previous years, no additional holding tax has been imposed for the FY 2011-12. Rather, the corporation has planned to strengthen the collection of existing tax and re-assessment of the holding tax to ensure civil service to the city dwellers.
He said, of Tk. 196.0 million, Tk. 20.0 million has been allocated for emergency water supply system, Tk. 34.0 million for public health sector and Tk 50.5 million for conservancy.
Besides, adequate provisions were also made for increasing civic amenities of the city dwellers, which included provision for setting up linear park and specialized hospital. The budget has also made adequate provision for development of environment.
The city mayor said that the long cherished WASA has already been formally started.
Tree Fair begins
The fortnight long tree plantation programme and tree fair -2011 has been started at city's Shahid Hadis Park today (Tuesday). Khulna district administration and Sundarban west zone jointly arranged the fair as part of the countrywide programme.
Khulna City Corporation Mayor Talukder Abdul Khaleque formally inaugurated the fair as chief guest. The inaugural function was presided over by Deputy Commissioner, also convener of the tree fair organising committee, Md Zamsher Ahamad Khandoker.
The function was attended among others by Divisional Commissioner Moshiur Rahman, Conservator of Forest Akbar Hossain, Superintendent of Police Tanvir Haider Chowdhury and DFO Zahir Uddin Ahmed.
A total 42 stalls have been set up in the fair which will remain open from 10 am to 8 pm and continue till July 12. The stalls are displaying saplings of various flowers, medicinal and fruit bearing trees. Seminars and cultural functions will be held during the fair, sources said.
Earlier, a colourful rally was brought out parading the main roads. Government officials, NGO representatives, members of Khulna Nursery Owners' Assoceation, journalists from students from different schools and colleges took part in the rally.print and electronic media.

HONEY OF SUNDARBAN

Honey (madhu) sweet, viscid fluid produced by bees from the nectar collected from flowers, and stored in their nests or hives as food. Honey is classified according to origin as blossom and honey-due-honey and by processing mode as comb, extracted or pressed-honey. The colour, taste and odour of honey depend on the type of nectar the bees collect. The main constituent chemicals of honey are levulose (fructose) and dextrose (glucose); other chemicals are sucrose, protein, K, P, Mn, Na, Mg, Ca, Fe, Al, Cu, Cl, S, Vitamin A, B, C, K and E. The caloric value of honey is about 3,040 calorie/kg. Honey is highly priced and has a wide range of use as food and medicine. Two species of honeybee collect honey that has commercial value: Apis dorsata has never been domesticated but produce most of the honey in Bangladesh; A. cerana indica produce honey both in the wild and in domestication. 

The apiculture practice is now being popularized in Khulna, Jessore, Bogra, Mymensingh, Tangail, Dhaka, and Chittagong. About 50 species of honey plants have been identified. The Sundarbans is the major producer of honey in the country and account for about 20 per cent of the total honey production of Bangladesh. These are mostly unifloral honey of goran-type and golpata-type. The other unifloral honey of the Sundarbans is khalshi-type; it is very high priced due to its high quality. The second important unifloral honey is mustard-type, mango-type, and Indian jujube-type. Other honey of both wild and culture is the coconut, onion and litchi-type. Most of the honey is collected from December to June but the peak period for collections is February to April. Honey is collected by pressing or squeezing the comb. Blotting and blending of honey is done manually. About 109 m tons of honey was collected from forest sources in 1995-96. The world production of honey is about 1,500,000 m tons. China is the major producer (about 25%); Germany is the highest consumer (1.8 kg/capita). The per-capita consumption of honey in India is about 9 g; it is only about 2 g in Bangladesh. Honey is traditionally consumed as table honey or as medicine.

In Bangladesh's Sundarban Forest, a beekeeper fans smoke into a hive of giant honeybees to calm the swarming insects before collecting their honey. Found in forested areas of the Indian subcontinent, Indonesia, and central China, Apis dorsata, the giant honeybee, grows to nearly an inch (2.5 centimeters) long and builds hives as large as nine feet (three meters) in diameter.

 

ANIMALS OF SUNDARBAN

Bengal Tiger (bagh) one of the largest living cats on earth, belongs to family Felidae, order Carnivora. The Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) is recognized as the national animal of Bangladesh and is renowned as the Royal Bengal Tiger. Its body is rich yellow to reddish ochre in colour with vertically arranged black stripes, more pronounced towards the rump and thighs; its underparts are whitish. Its cubs are born with stripes. The yellow tail has a series of black rings and ends up with a black tip. The backside of the ears is black and has a clearly visible white spot. The animal has round pupils, retractile claws, head-body length 140-280 cm, and a tail measuring 60-110 cm. Its height at its shoulder is 95-110 cm; males weigh 180-280 kg and females 115-185 kg; the female is smaller. The heaviest tiger that has been recorded in the Guinness Book of Records at 465 kg is the Amur (Siberian) Tiger (Panthera tigris attaica). Siberian tigers are also generally the heaviest, with adult males often weighing over 272 kg and male Sumatran tigers (P. t. sumatrae) weigh only about 113 kg. Tigers are mainly nocturnal, and normally solitary except when breeding. They prey on medium to large mammals such as deer, wild pigs and porcupines. They can bring down animals twice their size. Prey species determine how many tigers can survive in a given area. An agile animal, it swims well, and patrols its territory by marking it with droppings and other signs. Tigers are monogamous and usually give birth to 2-5 cubs after a gestation period of about 14-15 weeks; the majority of the cubs are born between February and May and nursed by their mothers for 5-6 months. The young cubs stay with their mother for a year or more. A female becomes sexually mature in 3 years and a male in 4 years. An extremely adaptable animal, P. tigris lives in a variety of habitats, from tropical forests to mangrove swamps to deciduous woodlands. Tigers can also be found in a wide range of climates and range from the jungles of the subcontinent to the snows of the Russian Far East. In Bangladesh tigers were once found in every forest, but are now confined to the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans, and are treated as a critically endangered species. Of the eight subspecies of tigers five still survive: the Bengal Tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) lives in Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Western Myanmar and Nepal; the Amur (Siberian) Tiger (P. t. attaica) in Siberia, Manchuria and Northeast China; the south China (Amoy) Tiger (P. t. ameyensis) in China; the Sumatran Tiger (P. t. sumatrae) in Sumatra; and the Indo-Chinese Tiger (P. t. corbetti) in Cambodia, China, Laos, Malaysia, Eastern Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Three subspecies of tigers the Javan Tiger (P. t. sondaica), the Bali Tiger (P. t. balica), and the Caspian (Turan/Hyrcanian) Tiger (P. t. virgata) have become extinct in the last 50 years. Today it is estimated that fewer than 7,000 tigers survive in the wild in the following countries: Bangladesh (300-362), Bhutan (67-81), China (110-140), India (2,500-3,750), Myanmar (230-465), Nepal (93-97), Russia (330-337), Vietnam (200), Cambodia (150-300), Laos (?), North Korea (c 10), Thailand (250-501), Malaysia (491-510), and Indonesia (400-500).

In Bangladesh habitat loss, loss of prey, poaching for skin and other body parts, and killing by man are the major threats to tigers so day by dayt Tiger has been deceasing in The Royal Bengal Tiger has been included in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Appendix 1, and in the 3rd Schedule of the Bangladesh (Wildlife) (Preservation) (Amendment) Act, 1974.

TREE OF SUNDARBAN

Tree Of Sundarban

Sundari Local name of the dominant plant species, Heritiera fomes, of the family Sterculiaceae, in the Sundarbans, the mangrove forests of the southern districts. The species is distributed up to about 70 per cent of the forest. The name Sundarbans is supposed to be derived from the name of the plant, Sundari. It is adapted to flourishing high tide once dominated in the forest, and to the low saline and freshwater zone. The other species of Sundari, H. littoralis, is mostly found in the western part of the Sundarbans. The tree may grow up to 25 m; trunk straight; leaves elliptic; roots with pneumatophores and blind root sucker; bell-shaped flowers are small, about 5 mm, unisexual, orange to pinkish; fruits are formed in clusters. The tree is the chief source of timber among the people of the surrounding districts of the Sundarbans; the annual production is about 250,000 cu ft; wood is hard, red in colour, used mostly in boat building, and in making hard-board, furniture, etc; wood also yields good quality charcoal. The Sundari plants are declining because of overexploitation, and also due to top dying diseases; about 50 per cent of the trees suffer from top dying diseases; increased salinity is also considered responsible for the decline.

Top dying disease name of a disease of sundri (H. fomes) trees showing symptoms from the top of the main stem of the affected plant and gradual progression of the symptoms downward. Unlike the die back symptoms of other trees, top dying affected trees do not show epichromic branches and formation of new leaves from the immediate lower part of the affected areas of the main stem. The affected plant looks like leafless bald headed one, distinguishable from the other healthy ones. This symptom is often associated with one or a few swellings on the diseased stem in the form of knots. About 18 percent of the Sundri trees of the mangrove have been affected and thus the disease poses a threat in terms of economic loss in millions of dollars. Possible reason(s) of the disease could not be ascertained during investigations carried out for the last two decades. Most of the researchers/ecologists point out to the conjugate effects of a number of ecological factors that allow infection and colonization of microbes and invasion of insect pests. Survey conducted by Overseas Development Authority (ODA) reported that almost all the compartments of the Sundarbans, are affected by the disease in various degrees. Different investigators consider the following factors to be responsible for the incidence of the top dying disease: increase in salinity of soil and water, and decrease in flow of fresh water from the upstreams; increase in siltation in the banks of the rivers and channels; decrease in mineral nutrients in the forest floor; attack by insect pests at the top of the plant or fungal/microbial infection at the root region. It has been reported that the frequency of top dying affected trees are greater at the bank of rivers, canals and creeks. It is suggested that careful extraction of top dying affected Sundri and replacement with suitable species may be useful in the management of the disease.