Land Resources

With an area of about 144,000 sq km, Bangladesh is situated between latitudes 20 degrees 34' and 26 degree 38' north and longitudes 88 degree 01' and 92 degree 41' east. The country is bordered by India on the east, west and north and by the Bay of Bengal on the south. There is also a small strip of frontier with Burma on the southeastern edge. The land is a deltaic plain with a network of numerous rivers and canals. Hilly regions on the northeast and southeast with an average elevation of 244m and 610m respectively mark a variation to the general topography of the country. The highest point (1230m) is located at the southeastern extremity of the erstwhile district of Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Climate

Bangladesh has a typical tropical monsoon climate marked by sweltering heat and high humidity for the major part of the year. The average annual temperature ranges from 18.9 to 29.0 Celsius (65 F 85 F). Annual rainfall varies from 160cm to 200cm in the west, 200cm to 400cm in the southeast and 250cm to 400cm in the northeast. The country has mainly four seasons, the winter (Dec-Feb), summer (Mar-May), monsoon (Jun-Sep) and autumn (Oct-Nov). The rainless winter is the most pleasant season when average maximum and minimum temperatures vary between 26.5 C and 13.5 C. In rare cases, the temperature falls to less than 5 C. In the summer average maximum and minimum temperatures are 33.3 C and 22.2 C. The summer and monsoon are also the time for tropical cyclones, storms and tidal bores.

Physical Environment

Bangladesh is nestled in the crook of the Bay of Bengal, surrounded by India. It shares a border in the south-east with Myanmar and fronts onto the Bay of Bengal. The country is flat. Over 90% of the country is composed of alluvial plains less than 10m above sea level. The only relief from these low-lying plains occurs in the north-east and south-east corners where modest hills rise to an average height of around 240m (787ft) and 600m (1970ft) respectively.

Roughly two-thirds of Bangladesh is fertile arable land and a little over 10% remains forested. The country is home to the Royal Bengal tiger in the Sundarbans, one of the largest mangrove forests in the world. There are also plenty of monkeys, langurs, gibbons (the only ape on the subcontinent), otters and mongooses. Reptiles include the sea tortoise, mud turtle, river tortoise, pythons, crocodiles and a variety of poisonous snakes. There are more than 600 species of birds. Bangladesh also has the largest number of fresh water fish in the world.

Economy

Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest, most densely populated, and least developed nations. The economy is largely agricultural, with the cultivation of rice the single most important activity. Major impediments to growth include frequent cyclones and floods, a rapidly growing labor force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, inadequate power supplies, and slow progress towards various necessary reforms. Natural hazards remain a major worry. Recently, severe floods, lasting from July to October 1998, endangered the livelihood of more than 20 million people.