06 August, 2009

beautiful scenery of tangoar haor








Introduction:

Tanguar Haor, located in the district of Sunamganj in the north-eastern part of Bangladesh, is a unique wetland ecosystem of national and international importance covering about 10,000 hectares. It provides subsistence and livelihoods to more then 40,000 people living in 46 villages situated in its periphery. The Government has declared Tanguar Haor as an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) in 1999 understanding its critical condition due to overexploitation of natural resource. In 2000, the Hoar basin was also declared as the country's second Ramsar site-wetland of international importance. With this declaration, the Government of Bangladesh is committed to preserve its natural resources and have taken several steps for protection of this wetland. The Tanguar Haor plays an important role in fish production as it functions as a 'mother fishery' for the country.

Poverty:

It is estimated that more than 40 percent of the population regularly consume less than the absolute critical minimum of 1800 kilocalories per day. These 50 million people are amongst the poorest in the world by any standard of development. Furthermore, it has been estimated that the number of absolute poor has risen significantly. The poverty of these deprived people is deep rooted, pervasive and multi-faceted, relating not just to the absence of reliable incomes and productive assets, but also to food, safe water, sanitation, education, shelter, inequities, injustice and lack of power. These deprived people are also extremely vulnerable to disaster and disease. The challenges posed by this massive poverty are enormous for a country with accelerating environmental degradation of an overpopulated land base. The human development indicators for Bangladesh are also staggeringly low. Bangladesh has an adult literacy rate of 37 percent, life expectancy of 58 years and population below poverty level of 45 percent. Urban slum dwellers now account for some 15 percent of the population and this is still growing by 6 percent per year.