GEOGRAPHY OF BANGLADESH
Bangladesh is 148,460 square kilometers in area (57,321 square miles)and extends about 580 kilometers (360 miles) from north to south, and 420 kilometers (260 miles) from east to west. About 70 percent of the country is good for agriculture (compared to 21 percent in the U.S.), 4.6 percent is covered by pasture land and 11 percent by forests and woods. The remaining 18 percent of the country is swamps, marshes and a few mountains.
Bangladesh is a densely populated rural country with the world’s largest river delta and the world’s largest mangrove forest and very lush and green landscape and often full of water. Encompassing eight divisions (states) and about 85,000 villages, Bangladesh is essentially a huge delta and alluvial plain of the Padma River (a combination of the Ganges and Brahmaputra River) and Meghna Rivers. The average elevation of the huge alluvial plain created by these and other rivers averages less than 10 meters (33 feet). There are few areas are above 100 meters (330 feet).
About 59 percent of Bangladesh's nonurban land is arable. Permanent crops cover only 6.5 percent of the country. Bangladesh produces large quantities of quality timber, bamboo, and sugarcane. Bamboo grows in almost all areas, but high-quality timber grows mostly in the highland valleys. Rubber planting in the hilly regions of the country was undertaken in the 1980s, and rubber extraction had started by the end of the decade. A variety of wild animals are found in the forest areas, such as in the Sundarbans on the southwest coast, which is the home of the worldfamous Royal Bengal Tiger. The alluvial soils in the Bangladesh Plain are generally fertile and are enriched with heavy silt deposits carried downstream during the rainy season. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
Compared with other countries in the world in terms of size, Bangladesh ranks 95th. It is roughly the size of Wisconsin or Nepal,. slightly larger than Pennsylvania and New Jersey combined; slightly smaller than Iowa. It is about about 1,600 square kilometers larger than Greece. The terrain is mostly flat comprised of an alluvial plain, There is hilly area in the southeast.[Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Location of Bangladesh
Situated between India and Southeast Asia, Bangladesh is located in Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Myanmar and India. Most of Bangladesh is situated on deltas of large rivers flowing from the Himalayas: the Ganges unites with the Jamuna (main channel of the Brahmaputra) and later joins the Meghna to eventually empty into the Bay of Bengal. [Source: CIA World Factbook]
Bangladesh is almost completely surrounded by India. It is situated in the delta of the two largest rivers on the Indian subcontinent and two of the largest in the world — the Ganges and Jamuna (Brahmaputra). Bangladesh's capital city, Dhaka, is located in the central part of the country.
Bangladesh occupies the eastern part of the Bengal region (the western part of the region is occupied by the Indian state of West Bengal). Before it became an independent state in 1971, Bangladesh was the eastern part of Pakistan. In the British colonial era, it was known as East Bengal. When Pakistan became independent in 1947, present-day Bangladesh was East Pakistan. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Nations”, Thomson Gale, 2007]
Geographical Data for Bangladesh
Area: 148,460 square kilometers (57,321 square miles); land: 130,170 square kilometers (50,259 square miles); water: 18,290 square kilometers (7,062 square miles). Geographic coordinates: 24 00 N, 90 00 E. Elevation: Elevation: highest point: Mowdok Taung 1,060 meters (3,478 feet); lowest point: Bay of Bengal 0 meters (0 feet); mean elevation: 85 meters (279 feet). [Source: CIA World Factbook]
Land use: agricultural land: 72.3 percent (2023 estimate); arable land: 60.6 percent (2023 estimate); permanent crops: 7.1 percent (2023 estimate); permanent pasture: 4.6 percent (2023 estimate); forest: 14.4 percent (2023 estimate); other: 13.3 percent (2023 estimate). Arable land is land cultivated for crops like wheat, maize, and rice that are replanted after each harvest. Permanent crops is land cultivated for crops like fruit trees oranges that are not replanted after each harvest. Irrigated land: 83,690 square kilometers (32,313 square miles) (2022).
Major rivers (by length in kilometers): Brahmaputra river mouth (shared with China (where the source is) and India) — 3,969 kilometers (2,466 miles); Ganges river mouth (shared with India (where the source is)) — 2,704 kilometers (1,680 miles). [Source: CIA World Factbook]
Major watersheds (area square kilometers (square miles)): Indian Ocean drainage: Brahmaputra (651,335 square kilometers (251,482 square miles)), Ganges (1,016,124 square kilometers (392,328 square miles)). Major aquifers: Indus-Ganges-Brahmaputra Basin. [Source: CIA World Factbook]
Maritime claims: territorial sea: 12 nautical miles (22.2 kilometers); contiguous zone:18 nautical miles (33.1 kilometers); exclusive economic zone: 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers); continental shelf: to the outer limits of the continental margin.
Borders of Bangladesh
Located in south Asia on the northern edge of the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is almost completely surrounded by India (on the east, north and west). In the southeast in the Chittagong hill region it shares a small border with Myanmar (Burma). The Bay of Bengal, which connects to the Indian Ocean is to the south.
Land boundaries: total: 4,413 kilometers (2,742 miles); border countries (2): Myanmar 271 kilometers (168 miles); India 4,142 kilometers (2,574 miles). Coastline: 580 kilometers (360 miles). [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Located south of the Himalayan foothills. Bangladesh borders the Indian states of West Bengal in the west and north, Assam and Meghalaya in the northeast, and Tripura and Mizoram in the east. Meghalaya and northern Bangladesh is one of the rainiest regions in the world. The longest distances are 767 kilometers (477 miles) from south-southeast to north-northwest and 429 kilometers (267 miles) from east-northeast to west-southwest. [Source: Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Physical Geography, The Gale Group, Inc., 2003]
Geographical Characteristics of Bangladesh
In their book “Bangladesh”, Douglas A. Phillips and Charles F. Gritzner wrote: Nature has been both kind and ruthlessly cruel to Bangladesh. The relatively tiny country is sandwiched between three barriers. To the north is the world’s highest mountain range, the towering Himalayas. To the east are rugged mountains and dense forests through which no major transportation artery passes. Only to the west is the land relatively open—it provides a doorway to India, with which the Bangladeshis have had a strained relationship since gaining independence in 1971. Its monsoon climate, with a relatively dry winter and torrential rainfall during the summer. Means that during roughly half the year, drought poses a problem; during the other half, the country is subject to severe flooding. [Source: “Bangladesh” by Douglas A. Phillips and Charles F. Gritzner, South Dakota State University, Infobase Publishing, 2007]
Much like the state of Louisiana, Bangladesh’s landscape is tied to the water. Three large rivers, the Ganges (Ganga), Jamuna (the name given the Brahmaputra River when it flows from India into Bangladesh), and the Meghna flow through the country. Nearly the entire country is formed by rich alluvium (streamdeposited soil) that ranks among the world’s most fertile soils. Unfortunately, the same rivers that have created most of the country’s land and given it the soil needed to produce food for its huge population also contribute to some of the world’s most devastating floods.
It is doubtful whether any country other than the Netherlands has a lower average elevation or is more vulnerable to flooding than Bangladesh. To the south, the Bay of Bengal offers the country a window to the global sea. But silt deposited by the combined rivers makes navigation difficult. Further, occasional cyclones send walls of saltwater surging over thousands of square miles of low-lying farmland. When this happens, all crops, habitation, livestock, and even human population can be swept away. The salt left behind in the soil in the wake of cyclones makes the soil useless for farming until rain eventually washes the salts away. In Bangladesh, it is very difficult to speak of a “natural” environment. Nearly every aspect of nature has been altered by human activity over thousands of years. Natural flora has been replaced by crops and natural fauna by livestock and poultry.
Various engineering works have been constructed in an attempt to protect the country’s settlements, fields, and other elements of the cultural (man-made) landscape. In fact, few places on Earth show a greater impact of the human imprint upon the land than does Bangladesh. In the remainder of this chapter, you will learn about the country’s landform features, its weather and climate, its weather-related natural hazards, and its plant and animal life.
Topography of Bangladesh
A watery, alluvial region, Bangladesh consists primarily of low-lying plains that never rise more than 10 meters (33 feet) above sea level. The majority of the country is engulfed by the delta region of 144,000 square kilometers (55,600 square miles) is formed by the Ganges (Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and Meghna Rivers and smaller tributary rivers. Changes in topography occur only in the northeastern hilly tea-growing regions of Sylhet and the southeastern forest regions of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The capital, Dhaka, is less than eight meters (25 feet) above sea level.
Bangladesh is crisscrossed by 250 rivers and numerous tributaries, streams, canals, and tidal creeks. Bangladesh has been built up from alluvial deposits and silt from the Himalayas carried downstream by the countries great rivers. This explains why the soil is so fertile and the land is flooded during the monsoon season. Much of the land is cultivated. Interspersed with the small peasant farms and large plantations are jungles, wooded marshlands, lakes and forests. The coastal area is marshy and jungly. The Chittagong coastal region in the southeast has a narrow connection to the rest of the country.
Most of the country is no more than 90 meters (300 feet) above sea level. The mean elevation for the entire country is 85 meters. The flat landscape is broken only hills in the eastern and southeastern parts of country. The northwestern section of the country, drained by the Tista (Teesta) River, is somewhat higher and less flat. The only really hilly regions are in the east. The Chittagong Hills (near the Burmese border) to the southeast is the highest region of Bangladesh. The average elevation here is 610 meters (2,000 feet). The highest peak, Keokradong, is 1230 meters (4034 feet high). It is near the Myanmar border in the extreme southeast. The Sylhet District to the northeast also has some hills.
The Bengal region of India and Bangladesh consist large of a vast alluvial, deltaic plain built up by the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. The total Bengal region covers 233,000 square kilometers. Of this 89,000 square kilometers (38 percent) is in India and 144,00 square kilometers (62 percent) is in Bangladesh. The northwestern section of the country, drained by the Tista (Teesta) River, is somewhat higher and less flat. There are dense forest along the eastern frontier with Mynamar and Assam (India).
About half of the total area of Bangladesh is actively deltaic and is prone to flooding in the monsoon season from May through September. The land is suitable for rice cultivation. In the north and the southeast, where the land is more hilly and dry, tea is grown. The Chittagong Hill Tracts have extensive hardwood forests. The vast river delta area is home to the dominant plains culture. The hilly areas of the northeast and southeast are occupied by much smaller tribal groups. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
Plains and Delta Area of Bangladesh
Approximately 80 percent of Bangladesh is flat alluvial plain, the majority of which is less than 10 meters (32 feet) above sea level. The exception is the Chittagong Hills, which rise to approximately 4,000 feet (1,219 meters) and are located in the southeastern part of the country, near Myanmar. About half of the total area of Bangladesh is comprised of actively-deltaic, alluvial plains that are prone to flooding in the monsoon season from May through September.
Much of land of Bangladesh is utilized for rice cultivation. The Bengal region consist largely of the vast alluvial, deltaic plain built up by the Ganges and Brahmaputra Rivers. The delta region formed by the Ganges (Padma), Brahmaputra (Jamuna) and Meghna Rivers and smaller tributary rivers covers 144,000 square kilometers (55,600 square miles). The total Bengal region covers 233,000 square kilometers. Of this 89,000 square kilometers (38 percent) is in India and 144,00 square kilometers (62 percent) is in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's alluvial soil is highly fertile and intensively farmed but vulnerable to flood and drought. The delta area and plains contain deposits of clay, silt, sand, or gravel deposited by running water. Mineral deposits are minimal. During the monsoon season floodwater covers much of the land area, sometimes damaging crops and hurting the economy. Since most of the region is at most a few meters above sea level, there are worries that the region will become permanently is sea levels rises as predicted by climate change.
The physical landscape of Bangladesh has been created by tens of thousands of silt deposited by the three rivers that flow into and across the country. Douglas A. Phillips and Charles F. Gritzner wrote: Only the Chittagong Hills, located in the far southeast corner of the country, break the monotony of otherwise quite featureless terrain. Even there, near Keokradong, the elevation only rises to about 4,000 feet (1,219 meters). Much of the country’s territory is situated on river deltas. The Ganges, Jamuna, and Meghna rivers join near the center of the country. Downstream from the capital of Dhaka, the combined streams break into many distributaries (deltaic channels) that flow into the Bay of Bengal. [Source: “Bangladesh” by Douglas A. Phillips and Charles F. Gritzner, South Dakota State University, Infobase Publishing, 2007]
This very low-lying depositional plain area goes by several names, including the Lower Gangetic Plain, the Mouths of the Ganges, and the Sundarbans. Because the land is flat and also composed of fertile alluvium, about two-thirds of the country is suitable for farming or grazing. So why is only a small part of the land—about 6 percent— farmed or grazed? This seems strange for a country with so many people and such a desperate need for food and export products. The answer may surprise you. Each summer, much of the land disappears beneath floodwaters, and dry land is so scarce that nearly all of it is settled—it is occupied by people and houses, rather than by crops and livestock.
Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the 77,700-square-kilometer (30,000-square-mile) delta created by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India is the world's largest delta. Ever year the Brahmaputra and Ganges system carries two billion tons of sediment out to sea. More than any other river system, even the Amazon. The sediment creates islands known as chars, which are utilized for farming but are vulnerable to floods.
The Brahmaputra enters Bangladesh as the Jamuna, joins the Ganges to form the Padma and ends as the Meghna, which splits into a massive delta that empties into the Bay of Bengal at a rate of 2.3 million cubic feet of water a second.
In the Ganges Delta many large rivers come together, both merging and bifurcating in a complicated network of channels. The two largest rivers, the Ganges and Brahmaputra, both split into distributary channels, the largest of which merge with other large rivers before themselves joining. This current channel pattern was not always the case. Over time the rivers in Ganges Delta have changed course, sometimes altering the network of channels in significant ways.
Hilly Areas of Bangladesh
The only exceptions to Bangladesh's low elevations are the Chittagong Hills in the southeast, the Low Hills of Sylhet in the northeast, and highlands in the north and northwest. The Chittagong Hills constitute the only significant hill system in the country and, in effect, are the western fringe of the northsouth mountain ranges of Burma and eastern India. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
The Chittagong Hills rise steeply to narrow ridge lines, generally no wider than 36 meters, 600 to 900 meters above sea level. At 1,230 meters (4034 feet), the highest elevation in Bangladesh is found at Keokradong, also called Reng Mountain, in the southeastern part of the hills near where Myanmar, India, and Bangladesh all come together.. West of the Chittagong Hills is a broad plain, cut by rivers draining into the Bay of Bengal, that rises to a final chain of low coastal hills, mostly below 200 meters, that attain a maximum elevation of 350 meters. West of these hills is a narrow, wet coastal plain located between the cities of Chittagong in the north and Cox's Bazar in the south.*
The small hilly regions of Bangladesh are crossed by swiftly flowing rivers. The Chittagong and Bandarban Hill Tracts are a series of ridges along the Myanmar border. Fertile valleys lie between the hill lines, which generally run north-south. Sylhet District features sedimentary hills, some of which exceed 90 meters (300 feet) in elevation. Near Sylhet, south of the Kusiyara River, six hill ranges connect to the Tripura Hills of India. The maximum elevation of these ranges, near the Bangladesh-Indian border, is about 335 meters (1,100 feet). [Source: Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia, The Gale Group Inc., 2003]
Land Divisions and Cities in Bangladesh
Administrative divisions: 8 divisions; Barishal, Chattogram, Dhaka, Khulna, Mymensingh, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Sylhet. [Source: Capital: Dhaka; geographic coordinates: 23 43 N, 90 24 E; time difference: UTC+6 (11 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time). The origins of the name are unclear, but it may be derived from either the dhak tree or Dhakeshwari, a goddess with a shrine in the city. [Source: CIA World Factbook]
At the local government level, Bangladesh country is divided into (from largest to smallest): divisions, districts (regions), subdistricts (thanas), union parishads (unions) and villages. There used to be six divisions: Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Barisal and Khulna. These in turn were divided into 64 districts and 495 thanas. In 1997, Bangladesh reorganized its local divisions. It do so again later. At one time there were five divisions and before that four.
Urban population: 38.2 percent of total population in 2020 (compared to 83 percent in Great Britain and 21 percent in Ethiopia). There are four major municipal corporations (Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna and Rajshahi).
rate of urbanization: 3.17 percent annual rate of change (2015-20 estimated)
Major urban areas: Dhaka (capital): 21.006 million; Chittagong: , 5.020 million; Khulna: , 954,000; Rajshahi: 908,000; Sylhet: 852,000 (2020) [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Dhaka is located in the central part of the country. It is located near the point where the Ganges (Padma) and Brahmaputra (Jamuna) river systems meet. The Ganges River flows into the country from the northwest, while the Brahmaputra enters from the north. Bangladesh’s other major city is Chittagong. It lies on the Bay of Bengal in the southeast part of Bangladesh. [Source: Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., The Columbia University Press]
Coastline, the Sea and Islands in Bangladesh
The Bangladesh coastline lies at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal, an extension of the Indian Ocean and sided by Sri Lanka and India to the west and Myanmar and Thailand to the the east. The Bay of Bengal is about 2,090 kilometers (1,300 miles) long and 1,610 kilometers (1,000 miles) wide. Ocean. Despite its location on the Bay of Bengal, Bangladesh is a riverine nation rather than a sea-oriented one. Its ports, including the largest, Chittagong, which is on the sea, are mostly river ports. [Source: Junior Worldmark Encyclopedia of Physical Geography, The Gale Group, Inc., 2003; “Geo-Data: The World Geographical Encyclopedia”, The Gale Group Inc., 2003]
Bangladesh is infamous for its destructive cyclones (hurricane-like storms) and tidal bores. A tidal bore is a wave that sweeps up a shallow river or estuary on the incoming tide but against the river's current. Conditions have to be just right for them to occur. Bangladesh is of the few places in the world they take place. Tidal bores tend to form high waves with abrupt fronts when an incoming surge of water during flood tide encounters an obstacle such as a sandbar. The funnel shape of the Padma-Meghna River estuary and the many channels between the islands are highly favorable to bore formation. A typical tidal bore rushes in with thunderous noise and a wall of water. Velocity and height are magnified if the tidal bore is backed by strong winds from the south, as occurs during cyclonic storms.
Bangladesh is filled with numerous, often changing islands. Several flat islands lie just offshore in the Bay of Bengal. Many have villages inhabited by fishing communities. The largest of the permanent islands are Shahbazpur, North Hatia, South Hatia, and Sandwīp. Along the Chittagong coast in the south lie Kutubdia and Maiskhal islands. In the Padma-Meghna estuary triangle there are a number of permanent islands, including many that rise out of water only at low tide. There are also temporary "chars," land forms built up by silting that may either become permanent or erode. In the Padma-Meghna estuary triangle there are many "chars.""Chars" occur in many places along the larger rivers and their ownership if often subject of disputes.
Rivers and streams break Bangladesh's coastline in the delta region. In contrast, the coastline in the southeast Chittagong region embraces one of the longest beaches in the world, an uninterrupted stretch of sand at Cox's Bazar that is about 120 kilometers (75 miles) long. The section of the Kulna delta that covers the coastline area from the Padma-Meghna estuary into India is called the Sundarbans. This is a jungly, tidal-flushed, salt marsh region
Borders Issues and Territorial Disputes Involving Bangladesh
The 4,413-kilometer (2,742-mile) India-Bangladesh border is regarded as one of the most porous in the world. The demarcation line divides several villages and some people eat lunch in their kitchen in India and then retire to their bedroom in Bangladesh for a nap. Towns on the Indian side of the border or noticeable better off than those on the Bangladeshi side. So many Bangladeshis migrate into India in search of jobs and food that the Indian government wants to erect a fence along the entire border. A fence that covers less than a fourth of frontier has done little to slow migration or smuggling.
In 2001, New Delhi approved a $304 million project to fence much of the border of Bangladesh. The India–Bangladesh barrier is 3,406-kilometers (2,116 miles) long. It is a fence of made barbed wire and concrete just under three meters (9.8 feet) high. Of this, 500 kilometers (310 miles) was completed at the cost of US$400 million in 2007. The deadline for project completion was set to be 2009. As of that time about 2,649 kilometers (1,646 miles) of fencing along with about 3,326 kilometers (2,067 miles) of border roads were completed. As of 2011, 2,735 kilometers (1,699 miles) of fencing was completed and the deadline was revised to March 2012.
A border demarcation agreement was signed with Myanmar in May 1979. Due in part to Rohingya crisis, Burmese border authorities are constructing a 200-kilometer (124 mile) wire fence designed to deter illegal cross-border transit and tensions from the military build-up along border
Bangladesh has referred its maritime boundary claims with Myanmar and India to the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea; Indian Prime Minister Singh's September 2011 visit to Bangladesh resulted in the signing of a Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh, which had called for the settlement of longstanding boundary disputes over undemarcated areas and the exchange of territorial enclaves, but which had never been implemented.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: “Bangladesh” by Douglas A. Phillips and Charles F. Gritzner, South Dakota State University, Infobase Publishing, 2007; Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd); “Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume 3: South Asia,” edited by Paul Hockings, 1992, National Geographic,, CIA World Factbook, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Encyclopedia.com, Library of Congress, Live Science, The Conversation, The New Yorker, Time, BBC, CNN, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, Google AI, Wikipedia, The Guardian and various websites, books and other publications.
Last updated June 2026