Urir Char ( bn, উড়িরচর) is an inhabited island in 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 betwee ...

. It is also a

union parishad Union council ( bn, ইউনিয়ন পরিষদ, translit=iūniyan pariṣad, translit-std=IAST), also known as union parishad, rural council, rural union and simply union, is the smallest rural administrative and local government unit ...

of Sandwip Upazila under Chattogram District in Chattogram Division,

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 ...

Geography

This

river island River Island is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores and online. Best known for its trend focused womenswear offering, River Isl ...

is located north of

Sandwip Sandwip ( bn, সন্দ্বীপ, Shondip) is an island located along the southeastern coast of Bangladesh in the Chattogram District. Along with the island of Urir Char, it is a part of the Sandwip Upazila. Description Sandwip is locate ...

, and is surrounded by the Sandwip Channel in all directions and the

southwards. To the island's south is Santoshpur Union, to its east is

Mirsharai Upazila Mirsharai Upazila ( bn, মীরসরাই) is an upazila of Chattogram District in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. It consists 2 Thanas and 2 Pauroshavas. The two Thanas are Jorargonj Thana and Mirsharai Thana and, the two Pauroshavas are Ba ...

, to its north is the Musapur Union and finally to its west is Char Elahi and Char Clerk.

History

Around 1970/1971, an island emerged just northwest of

near the Meghna Estuary. A few days after its emergence, Sandwip's residents began to explore the new island and found that there was a type of

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns a ...

colloquially known as ''Uri'' in abundance across the island. Due to this, the island became known as ''Urir Char'' ( bn, উড়ির চর) which means the ''

of Uri''. During this time, Asadul Haq Chowdhury (Prakash Saheb Miah) was the Chairman of Sandwip Upazila's Kalapania Union Parishad. Through his initiative, some landless people of Sandwip (whose homes had been lost due to

diluvium Diluvium is an archaic term applied during the 1800s to widespread surficial deposits of sediments that could not be explained by the historic action of rivers and seas. Diluvium was initially argued to have been deposited by the action of extra ...

) were relocated to Urirchar between 1980 and 1981. In 1985, Urir Char was among a number of islands in the Bay of Bengal that were devastated by Tropical Storm One. The

Bangladesh Army The Bangladesh Army is the land warfare branch and the largest component of the Bangladesh Armed Forces. The primary mission of the Army is to provide necessary forces and capabilities to deliver the Bangladeshi government's security and defe ...

flew relief materials in by helicopter. Urirchar also faced many other natural disasters after this such as the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, 2007 Cyclone Sidr and 2009 Cyclone Aila. The 1985 and 1991 disasters were most harmful to Urirchar. Tahmina Haq Chowdhury, the wife of Asadul Haq Chowdhury, was made Urirchar's first Union Chairman in 1988. The island has been visited by

Hussain Muhammad Ershad Lt. Gen. Hussain Muhammad Ershad ( bn, হুসেইন মুহাম্মদ এরশাদ; 1 February 1930 – 14 July 2019) was a Bangladeshi Army Chief politician who served as the President of Bangladesh from 1983 to 1990, a time ma ...

Khaleda Zia Khaleda Zia (; born Khaleda Khanam Putul in 1945) is a Bangladeshi politician who served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh from March 1991 to March 1996, and again from June 2001 to October 2006. She was the first female prime minister of Ba ...

and

Sheikh Hasina Sheikh Hasina Wazed (''née'' Sheikh Hasina ; ; bn, শেখ হাসিনা ওয়াজেদ, Shēkh Hasinā, , born 28 September 1947) is a Bangladeshi politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh since January 2 ...

. The Miah Bazar madrasa was founded in 2007 by Mawlana Abdur Rahman. In 2010, the Government of Bangladesh announced a plan to build a dam in Urir Char to reclaim land.

Administration

Urir Char is divided into three mouzas.

Economy and tourism

There are several

haat bazaar Haat or hat, even haat bazaar, is an open-air market that serves as a trading venue for local people in rural areas and towns of Indian subcontinent, especially in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan. Haat bazaars are conducted on a regular ba ...

s in the island, such as the New Bazar, Janata Bazar, Wahidpur Bazar, Subil Bazar, Burirpar Bazar, Bangla Bazar, Miah Bazar, Rajib Bazar and Colony Bazar. The

Kewra Kewra, keora or kewda ( hi, केवड़ा, bn, কেওড়া, , ur, کیوڑہ, pa, ਕੇਵੜਾ) is an essential oil distilled from the male flower of the fragrant screwpine. The plant is native to Tropical Asia, Southeast Asia ...

-forest on the seaside is a popular tourist attraction located in the union's 6th ward. Urirchar also has a significant number of expats contributing to its economy. A number of people from the villages of Narayanpur, Abdullahpur, Burirpar, Wahidpur, Syedpur, Hadipur, Shivanagar, Subil, Raghavpur, Pomkara have migrated to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

and

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

Facilities and education

Urir Char has a 26.4% literacy rate. It has one middle school (Urirchar Multilater Lower Middle School), four governmental primary schools (AH Naba Diganta, GU Saikat, Batajora and Meghna) and one playschool in Colony Bazar. The island has 15 mosques and 8 eidgahs.

References

{{coord, 22, 40, 50, N, 91, 20, 00, E, display=title, region:BD_type:isle Islands of Bangladesh Sandwip Upazila