CHAPTER FOUR
STUDY AREA
4.1. Study Area
The study was conducted at Nayabil Union of Nalitabari Upazilla (Sub-district) of Sherpur district, Bangladesh.
4.1.1. Background
Nalitabari, the second largest thana of Sherpur zila in respect of area, came into existence on the 2nd October, 1888. Nothing is definitely known about the origin of the thana name. It is said that huge quantity of local variety jute was grown in this area. It is located between 25°19' and 25°13' north latitudes and between 90°04' and 90°19' east longitudes. The variety was known as “Nalia” and accordingly a market naming Naliarhat was established in this area for trading of Nalia jute. It is believed that the area became known as Nalitabari with some phonetic corruption of the word Nalia (BBS, 1992).
4.1.2. Area and Location
The thana occupies an area of 327.61 sq.km. including 1.68 sq.km. river area and 0.78 sq.km. forest area. The thana is bounded on the north by India, on the east by Haluaghat of Mymensingh zila, on the south by Nakla and Sherpur thanas and the west by Jhenaigati thana (BBS, 1992).
4.1.3. Union, Mauza and Village Characteristics
The thana consists of 12 unions, 108 mauzas and 138 villages. The average population of each union, mauza and village are 32,333, 2,096, and 1,640 respectively (BBS, 1992).
4.1.4. Climate
The area lies in the semi drier part of the Bangladesh. The maximum temperature is usually 30° C during the month of May and maximum temperature is about 10°C during the month of January. Summer is start from April and lasted to the June and winter is started from December and lasted to the February. The rain started from May and lasted September (BBS, 1992).
4.1.5. Soil
The landscape presents scenic blending of hills and valleys, springs and lakes and patches of green forests. The soil type is Brown hill. Main characteristics of the soil are brown, very strongly acidic, loamy soil mainly used for rice cultivation (BBS, 1992).
4.1.6. Cropping Pattern
Total cultivated land are 24,946 hectare; single crop 20.44%; double crop 67.63% and treble crop land 11.93%; land under irrigation 14,327 hectares. Main crops are paddy, wheat, mustard seed, onion and potato (BBS, 1992).
4.1.7. Socio-economic Condition
In the thana, 75.64% of the dwelling households depend on agriculture as the main source of household income with 46.16% on cultivation/share cropping, 1.41% on livestock, forestry and fishery, 0.03% on pisciculture and 28.04% as agricultural labour. Other sources of household income are non-agricultural labour (3.77%), business (7.43%) and employment (2.01%) (BBS, 1992).
In the upazilla, there is 42,698 number of households in which the number of tribal households are 1,284, out of which only 20 households live in the urban area. The average household size for the upazilla is 5.3 persons, for rural area the size is slightly shorter, i.e., 5.26. It has been observed that 34.58% of the main houses of the dwelling household are made of straw/bamboo, 0.25% are made of cement and the remaining 65.17% are made of a combination of different types of materials (BBS, 1992).
In Nalitabari thana, 2.38% of the dwelling households have sanitary latrines with 1.79% in rural area and 7.55% in urban area. A total of 65.29% of the households have non-sanitary latrines with 64.47% in rural area and 72.50% in urban area. In this thana, 32.33% of the households have no toilet facility.
All the unions of the thana have been brought under Rural Electrification Programme. According to 1991 census, 3.95% of the total households and 3.63% of the dwelling households reported to have electricity connection in the entire thana.
In Nalitabari thana, 51.55% of the dwelling households own and 48.45% do not own agricultural land. Percentage of ownership of agricultural land is 39.51% in urban area as against 52.91% in rural area (BBS, 1992).
4.1.8. Demography
The upazilla has a population of 226,332 of which 114,864 are males and 111,468 are females. The sex ratio of the upazilla is 103 males per 100 females. The literacy (7 years and over) is 19.5% for both sexes in the upazilla, 24.7% for male and 14% for the female (BBS, 1992).
Figure 1: Map of the Study Area
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| Absract |
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| Introduction |
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| Methodology |
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| Literature Review |
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| Study Area |
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| Result And Discussion |
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| Recomendation And Conclusion |
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| References |
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| Author |
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