Botanical Garden and Eco-park
Sitakund Botanical Garden and Eco-park providing an eco-friendly habitat for the wildlife and creating a healthy tourist resort are its priorities. In the Botanical Garden, hundreds of herbal and medicinal plants are nurtured. Genetic pool of plant life of various breeds. Of the flowers kept in the nursery may be seen various types of indigenous and foreign flowers and fruits.
Of the flowers kept in the nursery may be seen various types of indigenous and foreign flowers and fruits. Some native plants that can be identified are joytun, nagalingam, banshpata, tamal, peduk, tezpata, etc.
Of the trees preserved here the identifiable ones are garjan, dharamara, dheua, halud, gutgutia, bohera, jarul, palash, dumur, sonalu, shimul, kanchan, chapalish, bura, haritaki, amloki, and haimanti.
Of the wildlife one can see deer of various species, monkey, hanuman, bear, hare, and among the birds, parrot, crow, finch, owl, etc.
About 35 km or 40 minutes' journey from Chittagong, the main gate to the Park is about 200 meters on the right off the Dhaka-Chittagong highway. There is a gate fee of Tk 10 per person or Tk 100 for a group. From here a narrow but regular road winds upward into the engulfing hills. Down the valley one can see golden (Sonali flower) and white (Kashful flowers) seasonal flowers displaying their ethereal beauty in the sunshine. Cars and microbuses, jeeps and pick-ups ply upward, including some daredevil rickshaw vans, but people mostly prefer to negotiate the climb on foot, so the road is always full of pedestrians -- men, women and children. The walking may prove to be arduous, because the picnic spots in the form of temple-shaped concrete sheds do not start until an hour's very laborious hiking is completed. There are about ten to twelve sheds spread over surrounding hilltops, with scant toilet and water facilities. The picnic paraphernalia, including food and water, should better be borne up by transport.
On the right from the mount a path descends sharply into the valley where the stream known as Sahasradhara (a thousand streams) falls from a height of thousand feet. The path leading to the fall is built of concrete stairs half the way and the rest is built of a cascade of mud steps.
A survey conducted on the Botanical Garden and Eco-park in January 2014 shows that a total of 332 vascular plant species belonging to 266 genera and 93 families including cultivated, natural and plantations were recorded from this Ecopark. Among the recorded plants, 324 species belongs to angiosperm and the remaining 8 species were gymnosperm. Trees constitute the major category (140 species) of the plant community followed by herbs (90 species), shrubs (66 species), climbers (25 species), ferns (9 species), and epiphytes (2 species). Poaceae is the largest family represented by 21 species belonging to 11 genera in Liliopsida (monocots), while in Magnoliopsida (dicots), Euphorbiaceae is the largest family represented by 18 species under 17 genera.
The survey has confirmed the occurrence of 29 rare and threatened plant species in the park area along with a good number of exotic species. It is observed that currently plant diversity of this Eco-park is in great threat due to illicit felling, fuel wood collection and intentional fire hazards by the local people. Frequent fire occurrences by the local people caused major damage to the herbaceous vegetation of the park during last few years. Protection of biodiversity of this garden is essential to conserve the native plant species of this historically and ecologically important forest area.
Languages spoken | Bengali |
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Currency used | Bangladeshi Taka BDT |
Country name | Bangladesh |