South Asia Briefing Unit 1 - Bangladesh Geography

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
The People and Nations of South Asia
Page 20 of 30

Bangladesh Geography

Bangladesh is a subtropical country, with an abundance of water. While it suffers from disastrous floods, the country is graced with lush and fertile land.

Basic geography

Bangladesh is surrounded to the west, northwest and east by India, and shares a southeastern border with Burma. Its coastline stretches for 580 km.
Administratively, the country is divided into 64 districts, with four main divisions: Dhaka (the capital), Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi.
Topographically, Bangladesh is essentially flat, and dominated by the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and lesser Meghna rivers
Very little of the country is more than 40 feet above sea level.
Bangladesh is the largest delta in the world.
The abundance of water in Bangladesh is both a blessing and a curse. While it provides rich alluvial materials, it is often the cause of devastating floods and disasters.

Climate

Bangladesh's climate is subtropical and tropical.
Bangladesh has three main seasons, the monsoon or 'wet' season, the cold season, and the hot season.
During the hot season, between June and September, the humidity is 90-95%, making many parts of the country almost unbearable to live in until the monsoon breaks.
Humidity remains high year round.
Bangladesh is affected roughly 16 times a decade by tropical cyclones which wreak havoc on coastal plains and villages.

Agricultural land

Bangladesh is inherently fertile.
65% of Bangladesh's land area is arable land.
2.5% of the land is used for permanent crops.
Roughly 40% of the cropland is irrigated.
There are 1,161 people per sq. km of arable land, or .07 hectares per capita.

People

The Hunger Project Online Briefing Program
The People and Nations of South Asia
Page 20 of 30

Politics