Magurchhara Punji ( bn, মাগুরছড়া পুঞ্জি, Magurchhora Punji, Village of the walking catfish stream, kha, Magursora Puñji) is a

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

village inhabited by the

Khasi Khasi may refer to: * Khasi people, an ethnic group of Meghalaya, India * Khasi language, a major Austroasiatic language spoken in Meghalaya, India * Khāṣi language, an Indo-Aryan language of Jammu and Kashmir, India See also * Khasi Hills * Gh ...

ethnic minority. It is located off the Srimangal–Kamalganj Highway in the 3rd Ward of Kamalganj Union,

Kamalganj Upazila Kamalganj ( bn, কমলগঞ্জ) is an upazila of the Moulvibazar District in the Division of Sylhet, Bangladesh. Etymology There was a local zamindar by the name of Kinkar Nath Ray who appointed a naib by the name of Kamal Narayan in orde ...

Moulvibazar District Moulvibazar ( bn, মৌলভীবাজার) also spelled Maulvibazar, Moulavibazar, and Maulavibazar, (former South Sylhet) is the southeastern district of Sylhet Division in northeastern Bangladesh, named after the town of Moulvibazar. It i ...

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 ...

. As of 2006, Magurchara Punji had nearly 40 households. It is the larger of the two tribal villages located within

Lawachara National Park Lawachara National Park ( bn, লাউয়াছড়া) is a major national park and nature reserve in Bangladesh. The park is located at Kamalganj Upazila, Moulvibazar District in the northeastern region of the country. It is located with ...

, the other being Lawachara Punji. It has a population of 155 people.

History

The etymology of the village is of multiple words. Punji is a word in the

Khasi language Khasi () is an Austroasiatic language with just over a million speakers in north-east India, primarily the Khasi people in the state of Meghalaya. It has associate official status in some districts of this state. The closest relatives of Khasi ...

to refer to a cluster of homesteads for one tribe. Magur is the

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

name for a species of fish called ''walking catfish''. The Bengali suffix Chhara means small stream, and therefore literally, Magurchhara means the small stream of

walking catfish The walking catfish (''Clarias batrachus'') is a species of freshwater airbreathing catfish native to Southeast Asia. It is named for its ability to "walk" and wiggle across dry land, to find food or suitable environments. While it does not trul ...

. The 14th of June is remembered as Magurchhara Day. The Magurchhara Tragedy took place at midnight on this day in 1997. During a well excavation, an explosion took place leading to a loss of roughly 14,000 koti

Bangladeshi taka The Bangladeshi taka ( bn, টাকা, currency sign, sign: , ISO 4217, code: BDT, Short form (linguistics), short form: Tk) is the currency of the Bangladesh, People's Republic of Bangladesh. In Unicode, it is encoded at . Issuance of ban ...

s (UK £1.4 billion). The explosion was heard around the

. The

Akhaura–Kulaura–Chhatak line The Akhaura–Kulaura–Chhatak line is a railway line connecting Akhaura and Chhatak, via Kulaura in Bangladesh. This line is under the jurisdiction of Bangladesh Railway History In response to the demands of the Assam tea planters for a rail ...

, Fulbari Tea Estate, Srimangal-Kamalganj highway, local homesteads, and conservation forests and the local biodiversity such as the

were heavily affected as well as the

Bangladesh Power Development Board The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) is a government agency operating under the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. It was created as a public-sector organization to boost ...

's 33,000kV main power line which burnt and exploded due to the high pressure. A further 28 tea gardens were also indirectly affected. Around 50 tea gardens in

Kulaura Kulaura ( bn, কুলাউড়া) is the biggest upazila (subdistrict) of the Moulvibazar District in north-eastern Bangladesh. The total area of this upazila is 545 km2. Hakaluki Haor, the largest marsh wetland in Sylhet and one of the ...

Barlekha Barlekha ( bn, বড়লেখা, Bôrlekha) is an upazila (sub-district) of Moulvibazar District, located in Bangladesh's Sylhet Division. Etymology Barlekha Upazila is named after Barlekha (formerly 'Barlikha') which means Great ''Likha''. ' ...

and Kamalganj reported issues of no power for a long period. The

and Srimangal-Kamalganj highway was closed for 6 months. 695 hectares of forest resources were severely damaged and 200 billion cubic feet of gas, with a market value of 5 billion US dollars, burnt. Within two years after the incident, 87.5 acres of

was destroyed due to the gas fire, with 20.5 acres being completely destroyed. The day has been commemorated by many organisations due to the government still not responding to the situation. The incident had both national and international coverage.

Flora and fauna

Magurchhara and has green hills.

Gibbon Gibbons () are apes in the family Hylobatidae (). The family historically contained one genus, but now is split into four extant genera and 20 species. Gibbons live in subtropical and tropical rainforest from eastern Bangladesh to Northeast India ...

s and birds live in the forest of the Lawachara National Park.

Tea plantation Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

s are located in the area surrounding the national park.

References

Villages in Maulvibazar District Kamalganj Upazila {{Sylhet-geo-stub