 |
Of
the total area of Bangladesh, agricultural land makes up 65% of
its geographic surface, forest lands account for almost 17%, while
urban areas are 8% of the area. Water and other land use account
for the remaining 10%. The total forestland includes classified
and unclassified state lands and homestead forests and tea/rubber
gardens. In case of private forests, the data represent the tree-covered
areas.
Of
the 2.52 million hectare Forest Land, Forest Department manages
1.52 million hectare which includes Reserved, Protected and Acquired
forest and Mangrove forest on the newly accreted land in estuaries
of major rivers. The remaining 0.73 million hectare of land designated
as Unclassed State Forest (USF) are under the control of Ministry
of Land. Village forests (homestead land) form the most productive
tree resource base in the country and accounts for 0.27 million
hectare. |
| Area distribution of Different Land use Category Table -1 |
| Land Use Category | |||
| Area (Million Hectare) | Percent | ||
| Agriculture | 9.57 | 64.9 | |
| State Forest | |||
| Classfied | 1.52 | 10.3 | |
| Unclassified | 0.73 |
5 | |
| Private Forest | |||
| Homestead | 0.27 | 1.8 | |
| Tea/Rubber Garden | 0.07 |
0.5 | |
| Urban | 1.16 | 7.9 | |
| Water | 0.94 |
6.4 | |
| Other | 0.49 | 3.2 | |
| Total | 14.75 | 100 | |
| Table - 2 Total Forest Land of Bangladesh |
| Category of Forests | Area (Million Hectare) | Percentage |
| Forest Department Managed Forests | 1.52 | 10.30 |
| Unclassed State Forest | 0.73 | 4.95 |
| Village Forest | 0.27 | 1.83 |
| Total | 2.52 | 17.08 |
Table - 3 Forest Area Managed by FD |
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| The
Hill Forest mainly situated in the district of Chittagong, Cox’s
Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachari, Bandarban and Sylhet. The total area
of the Hill Forest i
s
670,000 hectare which accounts for 44% of total area managed by
the Forest Department and 4.54% of total area of Bangladesh.
Sundarban, the world’s largest contiguous natural mangrove forest in Bangladesh covers an area of 6,017 sq. km which accounts for 4.07% of total area of Bangladesh and 40% of total area managed by the Forest Department. The area covered by the three wildlife sanctuaries in the Sundarban is 1,39,700 hectare that was declared as ‘World Heritage site’ by the UNESCO in 1997. The plain land ‘Sal’ forest is situated mainly in the district of Gazipur, Tangail, Mymensingh, Sherpur, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Naoga, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Panchagar. The total area of Sal Forest is 120,000 hectare which accounts for 0.81% of total area of Bangladesh and 7.89% of total area managed by the Forest Department. |