Banshkhali beach, far from the madding crowd

Banshkhali, a coastal upazila in southern Chittagong, is home to the second longest sea beach in the country after Cox’s Bazar. About 40 kilometers south from Chittagong city, the upazila has many natural tourist attractions. In the west there is the natural beach about 35 kilometers long starting from the estuary of the Sangu River in the north and in the east, the long stretch of undulating hills located in between Banshkhali and Satkania-Lohagara. There are also tea gardens, wild life sanctuaries, many historical sites and an eco-park. While the largest hanging bridge of the country is in Rangamati, the longest one is in the Banshkhali eco-park.

In recent years, the beach has become a popular tourist attraction. Local people and also tourists from across the country are visiting the beach and exploring breathtaking beauty every day. Recently, Prothom Alo covered the growing popularity of the beach through a short video clip showing how people are increasingly visiting and enjoying the beach.

There are many beach points developed like Khankhanabad, Kadamrasul, Baharchara, Ratnapur, Katariya and Gondamara. Among them, Khankhanabad, Baharchara and Ratnapur points have been the most popular ones. To me, sunset from the Banshkhali beach is more stunning than that of Cox’s Bazar. Unlike Cox’s Bazar beach, most of the shores of the beach are intertidal and go underwater at high tide, and at low tide the water recedes far from shore. As a result, in some parts of the shore, there is smooth cordgrass, a kind of sea grass that grows in the intertidal zone of the shore. Walking on the grass is such a soothing experience that you won’t have in Cox’s Bazar.

You can see flocks of seabirds, plenty of exquisite sea shells and oysters washing up ashore. The sandy beach, high waves, refreshing and quiet environment of the beach and surrounding nature draw people irresistibly again and again. There are rows of tall tamarisk trees on the beach and concrete slaps placed on the embankment to protect from erosion. And also at Ratnapur point there is a small mangrove forest. Given all of this, the beach has been a big attraction for those who want to have some time away from the madding crowd and concrete jungles we live in.

Though once the mangrove forest was so large that people used to lose their way, but over the years, vast tracts of the forest that worked as a shield against natural disasters - have been cleared to make space for shrimp farming and salt production. And also there were so many tamarisk trees planted and grown big but many of the trees were uprooted and washed away in the recent years by the powerful tidal surges during the monsoon.

Previously, Banshkhali seemed to be pretty much an outlying upazila of Chittagong district, having poor road conditions and communication from Chittagong city. But over the years, things have comparatively changed a lot. Many roads connecting beach points to the Banshkhali-Chittagong main road have been built. Now, it is only one-and-half hour journey from Chittagong city to go to the beach. Nevertheless, there is a lot do in terms of infrastructure development, communication and accommodation facilities to make the beach more tourist-friendly and accessible.

With the construction of Bangabandhu tunnel under the Karnauphuli River and the Marine Drive Expressway starting from Mirserai through Anwara, Banshkhali, Chakaria to Cox’s Bazar, the landscape of whole region will be spectacularly changed and as planned, it will link at least 10 special economic zones in Chittagong region, two coal-fired power plant at Banshkhali and Moheshkhali and also a deep seaport at Matarbari. So no doubt the project will work as a protection for the coastal areas and will unfold many tourism-based and industrial economic possibilities. The expressway is also set to be Asia’s longest coastal road. The feasibility study of the project has already been completed in last December and the project is likely to be started this year.

Being on the coastline of Bay of Bengal, Banshkhali has always been vulnerable to floods and cyclones and often been badly affected as well. It is also one of the areas highly vulnerable to climate change. The coastal embankment of Banshkhali has time and again been damaged by cyclones and rising sea levels every year. As there is no time to downplay the climate warnings being made consistently, nature-based climate friendly development should be our top priority. At the same time, local educated youth and voluntary organisations should be mobilised to increase public awareness about the climate crisis.

* Parvez Uddin Chowdhury is a development worker and independent researcher. [email protected]