ENV 203/GEO 205: Introduction to

Geography
Lecture 5
Natural Resources of Bangladesh -2

Moupia Rahman (MpR), PhD

E-mail: moupia2004@yahoo.com
 Lecture 5 Outline

Natural Resources of Bangladesh – 2

• Forest
• Livestock
• Agricultural crops

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Forest and Forestry

Forest type:
Based on their ecological characters, the
forests of Bangladesh can be divided into -
- tropical wet evergreen,
- tropical semi-evergreen,
- tropical moist deciduous,
- tidal, and
- planted forests.

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 Tropical wet evergreen forests
• Tropical wet evergreen forests occur in hilly areas of Chittagong,
Chittagong Hill Tracts, Cox's Bazar, and Maulvi Bazar.

About 700 species of flowering

plants grow in this type of forest.

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 Tropical semi-evergreen forest
• Tropical semi-evergreen forest Generally evergreen in character
but deciduous plants also dominate. These forests range in the
hilly regions of Sylhet through Chittagong, the Chittagong Hill
Tracts, Cox’s Bazar, and also in some parts of Dinajpur district.
• Over 800 species of flowering plants have been recorded in
these forests

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 Tropical moist deciduous forest
A deciduous forest is a biome dominated by deciduous trees which lose their leaves
seasonally. They often have broad leaves.

Tropical moist deciduous forest

Commonly known as sal forest, sal
(Shorea robusta) being the dominant
species. These forests are now
distributed in Dhaka, Mymensingh,
Dinajpur and Comilla regions.

Deciduous forest, Gazipur

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 Tidal forest
Tidal forests are often referred to as mangrove forests and are found in a tidal
zone. The tidal forests are the vegetation growth of mangrove around the sea
shores which grows naturally and form thick forests around water bodies near the
sea like in Bengal delta

The most productive forest type in

Bangladesh, they are situated in
Khulna, Patuakhali, Noakhali and
Chittagong regions along the coastal
region, and constitute about
520,000 ha.

Tidal forest in Sundarbans

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 Forest distribution
• The total forest area in Bangladesh including unclassed state
forest land is about 2.25 million ha. A large part of the area,
however, has no tree cover. Over the last three decades
forest cover declined by 2.1 percent annually.
Table Status of the state-owned forest land (in ha).

Forest Reserve Protected Vested Acquired BWDB Unclasse Total

type forest forest forest forest and khas d state
forest
Hill 594,383 32,303 2,636 11,004 --- 721,344 1361,670
Inland 68,140 2,689 19,985 31,198 --- --- 122,012
Littoral 656,579 --- --- 6 101,526 --- 758,111
Total 13,19,10 34,992 22,621 42,208 101,526 721,344 22,41,79
2 3

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 Livestock
• Livestock animals, kept specially on a farm, for economic benefits.

• In Bangladesh these are generally cattle, buffalo, goat and sheep. Livestock
constitute an important part of the wealth of a country, since in addition to
draft power and leather, it provides manure, meat and milk to the vast
majority of the people.

Livestock population in Bangladesh is currently

estimated to comprise:
• 25.7 million cattle,
• 0.83 million buffaloes,
• 14.8 million goats,
• 1.9 million sheep,
• 118.7 million chicken and
• 34.1 million ducks

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 Livestock products
• Livestock products materials or substance produced by domestic
animals such as cattle, buffalo, goat or sheep for farm or homestead
use or for sell to get economic benefit.
• Most important products of livestock origin are milk, meat and eggs.
These products are essentially required for human nutrition.

Table The production, need, demand, deficit of milk, meat and eggs in Bangladesh has been estimated as follows:

Products Production Need per capita Demand (Million Deficit (Million m

(Million m ton) (gram) m ton) ton)

Milk 2.28 250 12.82 10.54

Meat 1.04 120 6.16 5.78

Eggs 5369 104/year 14662 9253

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 Agriculture
• Agriculture is the science and practice of
producing crops.
• The other sub-sectors of agriculture are
livestock, poultry, fish and fisheries, and forest
and forestry.
• We will focus on agricultural land and crops
here.

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 Agricultural land
• The total land area of Bangladesh
is about 14.3 million ha, of which
about 59.8% is available for
cultivation.
• Depending on the flooding depth,
the land is categorized as highland
(20%), medium highland (39%),
medium lowland (15%), lowland
(8%) and very lowland (2%).
• Based on physical environment
which are relevant to land use,
the land is divided into 30
agroecological zones

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 Area and production of the major crops (Average of 3
years: 2004/2007)
Source Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics of Bangladesh, 2007.

Crops Production (000 m ton) Area(000 ha)

Rice (total) 10.495 26,335
Wheat 479 816
Maize 105 593
Potato 324 4728
Jute 404 819 (bales)
Sugarcane 153 5910
Pulses (as group) 350 289
Oil seeds (as group) 344 643
Spices and condiments 324 1196
Tobacco 31 41

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 References
• http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=For
est_and_Forestry
• http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Liv
estock

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