Barguna ( bn, বরগুনা ''Borguna'') is a district in the division of Barisal,

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

. It is situated in the southern part of Bangladesh. Barguna subdivision was established in 1969 and promoted to district on 28 February 1984.

History

Barguna district was in the

Sundarban Sundarbans (pronounced ) is a mangrove area in the delta formed by the confluence of the Padma, Brahmaputra and Meghna Rivers in the Bay of Bengal. It spans the area from the Baleswar River in Bangladesh's division of Khulna to the Hooghly Ri ...

area. In the evolution of time, people started clearing the forest by cutting down the trees and started to live here. Wood merchants used to come here to collect woods from the forest.

Etymology

There is not enough strong proof of naming the district. Some historians say that timber traders of the northern region came here to buy timbers and waited for the favoring flow (Baro - Gone) to overcome and from there the name "Baro-Gana" was derived. Others say that it was named after a famous Rakhine resident of this district while some say that the name came from a bawali named "Barguna"

Geography

The Barguna District has a total area of 1939.39 km². It was established as a district on 28 February 1984. It is bounded on the north by the districts of Jhalkathi,

Barisal Barisal ( or ; bn, বরিশাল, ), officially known as Barishal, is a major city that lies on the banks of the Kirtankhola river in south-central Bangladesh. It is the largest city and the administrative headquarter of both Barisal Dist ...

Pirojpur Pirojpur ( bn, পিরোজপুর) is a town in Pirojpur district in the division of Barisal in southern Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth- ...

and

Patuakhali Patuakhali ( bn, পটুয়াখালী ''Potuakhali'') is a town and district headquarter of Patuakhali District located on the southern bank of Laukathi river in the division of Barisal in Bangladesh. It is the administrative headquar ...

. In the east, it borders the Patuakhali district. On the south, Barguna is bounded by the Patuakhali district, and the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line between ...

. On the western side, it borders Pirojpur and

Bagerhat Bagerhat Sadar ( bn, বাগেরহাট সদর) is an upazila of Bagerhat District in the Division of Khulna, Bangladesh. The municipality was established in 1958. It consists of 9 wards and 31 mahallas. History Khan Jahan Ali established ...

districts. There are six upazilas, six thanas, four municipalities, 42 unions and 560 villages. Important rivers include the Paira River,

Bishkhali River The Biskhali is a river of Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in a ...

, Khakdon river,

Baleshwar River The Baleshwari River is located in Bangladesh, forming part of the eastern border of Bagerhat District and the western border of Barguna District. It borders on the east the largest mangrove forest in the world, in the Ganges-Brahmaputra delta, th ...

and Haringhata river. The total area of the river is 160 km² which is 22% of the total area of the district. Moreover, there are 300 natural canals in the district. The average annual temperature is 33.3° Celsius and annual lowest temperature is 12.1° Celsius. Annual rainfall of the district is 2506 mm. Total area of reserved forest area is 30533.90 acres.

Administration

Barguna district has 6 upazilas and 42 unions. ''Taltali'' is the newest. The upazilas are:

Economy

Barguna's economy is primarily dependent on agriculture. Principal crops include

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

and

pulses In medicine, a pulse represents the tactile arterial palpation of the cardiac cycle (heartbeat) by trained fingertips. The pulse may be palpated in any place that allows an artery to be compressed near the surface of the body, such as at the nec ...

Jute Jute is a long, soft, shiny bast fiber that can be spun into coarse, strong threads. It is produced from flowering plants in the genus ''Corchorus'', which is in the mallow family Malvaceae. The primary source of the fiber is ''Corchorus olit ...

cultivation was once important, but it gradually lost popularity as a cash crop. Being a coastal district, Barguna has a thriving fishing industry. Produce of the district includes

betel The betel (''Piper betle'') is a vine of the family Piperaceae, which includes pepper and kava. The betel plant is native to Southeast Asia. It is an evergreen, dioecious perennial, with glossy heart-shaped leaves and white catkins. Betel plan ...

leaf, pulses,

bananas A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large herbaceous flowering plants in the genus ''Musa''. In some countries, bananas used for cooking may be called "plantains", distinguis ...

, betel nut,

molasses Molasses () is a viscous substance resulting from refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar. Molasses varies in the amount of sugar, method of extraction and age of the plant. Sugarcane molasses is primarily used to sweeten and flavour foods ...

, marine fish, and

shrimp Shrimp are crustaceans (a form of shellfish) with elongated bodies and a primarily swimming mode of locomotion – most commonly Caridea and Dendrobranchiata of the decapod order, although some crustaceans outside of this order are refer ...

. Total area of agricultural land is 104231 hectares. There is no major industry in this district. A number of small manufacturing industries comprise mostly rice mills, saw mill, soap factory, flour mill, ice factory and pen factory. There are 25 food processing industries, 10 chemical industries, 10 textile home-craft industries and 35 miscellaneous industries in this district. Majority of the industries are in the sadar area and the remainings are in different upazilas. Traditional cottage industries such as weaving, bamboo and cane art work, goldsmithing, blacksmithing, pottery, wood work, and tailoring also thrive in rural areas.

Demographics

As of 2011, Barguna District had an overall population of 892,781 with a population density of 460 people per km². Females constitute a majority of the population with 51.01% while males constitute 48.99%. Rural population is 789,687 (88.45%) and urban population 103,094 (11.55%) Total numbers of voters are 662,375. Ethnic population is 1143, 1059 of whom are Rakhine.

Religion

The overwhelming majority of the population of the district is Muslim, with the population share of Hindus seeing a decline since the 1981 census, when they constituted 9.35 per cent. The same has been true for Buddhists and Christians. Similar to other districts in the Barisal division, the absolute number of all the three minority populations reduced in the 2001-2011 period. The district has 3760 mosques, 144 temples, one church and 18 Buddhist

pagoda A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...

Education

Literacy rate of Barguna district is 62.10%. Barguna town is a home to many educational institutions. Barguna Zilla School is the oldest school in the town established in 1927 as Barguna Middle English School by Mr. Ramzan Ali Akon. Notable schools and colleges include Barguna Government College, Barguna Government Women's College, Barguna Zilla School, Barguna Govt. Girls High School, Gourichanna Nawab Salimullah Secondary School etc. Besides these, there are two teacher training colleges, a Government Polytechnic institute, a technical school and college and a textile vocational institute in the town. The educational activities are operated under the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Barisal. There are total 1332 educational institutions. There are 2 government and 22 non government colleges, 2 government and 148 non government high schools, 814 government primary schools, 339 madrasas, one non government B.Ed. college, one government primary teachers training institute, one government polytechnic institute, one government technical institute and college and one government textile vocational institute. Notable educational institutions are: *

Barguna Polytechnic Institute Barguna ( bn, বরগুনা) is a town in Barguna district in southern Bangladesh. It is the administrative headquarter and the largest town of Barguna district and a part of Barisal Division. Located on the bank of Khakdon river, the town c ...

* Patharghata K. M. Secondary School * Ramna Sher-E-Bangla Samabay High School, * Govt. Sarwarjan Pilot Model School & College * BEGUM FAIZUNNESSA MOHILA DEGREE COLLEGE * Halta Dauwatala Wazed Ali Khan Degree College * Taslima Memorial Academy * Barguna Govt. College * Govt. Bamna College * Barguna Zilla School * Barguna Govt. Girls school

Health

There is a modern government general hospital in this district which has 100 bed capacity but an upgradation of 250 bed capacity is under construction. Besides this, there are 5 upazila health complexes, 8 upazila health centres and 123 community clinics in this district. There are total 32 government doctors servicing this whole district. There is a lack of total 134 doctors in the hospitals and clinics.

Transportation

There is direct connection from the capital to this district by road. The total length of Upazila Road is 464 km, of which 352 km is concrete and 112 km is dirt. The total length of Union Road is 568 km. 336 km, of which is concrete and 232 km is dirt. Sakura travels, Mia travels, Abdullah travels, Sugandha travels, Patuakhali express, Meghna travels, and Saudia travels are major bus travels. Total length of riverway is 250 nautical miles. M.V. Bandhan-7, Juboraj-4, Juboraj-2, Allahu Marji, Nusrat, Mashiran Khan, Tipu-3 are some of naval transports available in this district. There is no airport in this district.

Member of the eleventh Jatiyo Sangsad (2020 - current)

Notable places

* Bibichini Shahi Mosque, located at Betagi * Buddhist temple, located at Taltali * Buddhist Academy * Horin Ghata Eco Park, located at Patharghata * Ashar Char *

Bihanga Island Bihanga Island is located at Patharghata Upazila in Barguna District. It is an island of Baleshwari River. Although the island was discovered long ago, it was recently named ''Bihanga Island''. The name Bihanga in Bengali language means "bird". T ...

Notable people

* Qamarul Ahsan, politician and litterateur * Syed Rahmatur Rob Irtiza Ahsan, politician * Md. Akhtaruzzaman, Vice-Chancellor, University of Dhaka, was born in Kalipur village *

Zafrul Hasan Farhad Zafrul Hasan Farhad ( – 18 January 2017) was a Bangladeshi politician from Barguna District, Barguna belonging to Jatiya Party (Ershad), Jatiya Party. He was a member of the Jatiya Sangsad. Biography Farhad was the president of Barguna Distri ...

, former parliamentarian * Delwar Hossain, politician *

Shahjada Abdul Malek Khan Shahzada Abdul Malek Khan ( bn, শাহজাদা আবদুল মালেক খান, 19251 April 2007) was a Bangladesh Awami League politician and the former Member of Parliament of Patuakhali-2. Early life and family Khan was born ...

, politician *

Abdul Kader Mia Abdul Kader ( bn, আব্দুল কাদের; died 1960), also known by his daak naam Lal Mia ( bn, লাল মিঞা), was a Bengali politician. He served as a member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly and later the East Bengal Leg ...

, member of the Bengal Legislative Assembly * Nurul Islam Moni, politician * Sultana Nadira, politician *

Siddiqur Rahman Siddiqur Rahman is a Bangladesh Nationalist Party politician and the former Member of Parliament of Bakerganj-4 and Bhola-2. Career Rahman was elected to parliament from Barisal-4 ( Bakerganj-4) as a Bangladesh Nationalist Party candidate in 19 ...