tanguar haor

Tanguar haor (Bengali: টাঙ্গুয়ার হাওর), (also called Tangua haor), located in the Dharmapasha and Tahirpur upazilas of Sunamganj District in Bangladesh, is a unique wetland ecosystem of national importance and has come into international focus. The area of Tanguar haor including 46 villages within the haor is about 100km2 of which 2,802.36 ha2 is wetland. It is the source of livelihood for more than 40,000 people. The Government of Bangladesh declared Tanguar haor as an Ecologically Critical Area in 1999 considering its critical condition as a result of overexploitation of its natural resources. In 2000, the hoar basin was declared a Ramsar site - wetland of international importance. With this declaration, the Government is committed to preserve its natural resources and has taken several steps for protection of this wetland.
Tanguar haor plays an important role in fish production as it functions as a 'mother fishery' for the country[1][2]
Every winter the haor is home to about 200 types of migratory birds. The haor is an important source of fish. In 1999-2000, the government earned 7,073,184 takas as revenue only from fisheries of the haor. There are more than 140 species of fresh water fish in the haor. The more predominant among them are: ayir, gang magur, baim, tara, gutum, gulsha, tengra, titna, garia, beti, kakia etc. Hijal, karach, gulli, balua, ban tulsi, nalkhagra and some other important threatened species of freshwater wetland trees are there in this haor.[2]
Plant species like Hizol (Barringtonia acutangula), Clematis cadmia, Crataeva nurvala, Euryale ferox, Nelumbo nucifera, Ottelia alismoides, Oxystelma secamone var. secamone, Pongamia pinnata, Rosa clinophylla, and Typha species are threatened, rapidly disappearing and becoming rare

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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.