Maulvi Bazar District Information

Posted In: Sylhet, by on May, 15 2011. 2 Comments

Maulvi Bazar is a North-Eastern district of Sylhet Division in Bangladesh. Maulvi Bāzār District is a second-order administrative division in Sylhe. This district has 67 Unions, 2,064 Villages and 5 Pourashavas. There are 7 sub districts in this district. The sub districts (upazila) are namely Kamalganj, Kulaura, Sreemongal, Barlekha and Moulvibazar. This district is one of the most beautiful district with a lots of tea garden ands with demographic diversity.

Area: 2,707 km².

Population: 1.38 million.

Literacy rate: Average literacy 30.8%; male 36.8%, female 24.6%.

Religion: Muslim 70.59%, Hindu 28.31%, Christian 0.92%, Buddhist 0.04%, others 0.14%.

Ethnic community: Manipuri, Khasia, Halam and Tripura .

Boundary: This district is surrounded by Sylhet District in the north, Habiganj District in the west and Indian States of Assam and Tripura in the east and south respectively.

Major Rivers: The Manu, the Dholoi and the Juri.

Haors: Hakaluki and Kawadighi Haors.

Weather: Annual temperature is maximum 33.2°C, minimum 13.6°C. annual rainfall is 3334 mm.

Forest area: 413.65 sq km (about 15% of the total area of the district).

Forest ranges: Patharia, Sanrer Gaz or Longla, Rajkandi and Vanugachh.

Main crops: Aush, aman and boro paddy, arum, sesame, tea, rubber, betel leaf, betel nut etc.

Mineral resources: This district is rich with different minerals. Some of them are coal, glass sand and lignite which have been found in Maulvi Bazar and Patharia. People are Exploiting for petroleum and natural gas now.

Main exports: Tea, vegetables, satkara , lemon, naga chilli, glass sand, Bamboo, pineapple, cane, jackfruit, oranges, agar, rubber, mangoes etc.

Marks of War of Liberation: There are 6 Mass killing site, 9mass grave, 6memorial.
North Bharaura (Sreemangal), Kulaura Hospital and Nabinchandra High School were used as torturing centers by the beasts of Pakistan.

Transportation process: Main process is by road. There are also 18rail stations even a railway junction in this district. There is also a airport (Shamshernagar, now abandon) and 1riverport (Sherpur).

Educational institutions: This district has 1 co operative institute, 1 youth training centre, 1 nursing institute, 1vocational training institute, 1Tea Research Institute, 1 horticulture research institute, 1 primary training institute. Though out the district there are 21 college, 123 secondary school, and 1078 primary school and108madrasa.There is also a education project for the blinds taken by the government.

Naming History
The naming history of Maulvi Bazar is interesting. It got its name from one of the descendents of Hazrat Shah Mustafa who was preaching Islam there as a maulavi.
Actually Islam was brought to the area hundreds of years ago by the Muslim Saint Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA). Hazrat Shah Mustafa (RA) was a companion of the greatest saint Hazrat Shah Jalal (RA). With the arrival of saint Hazrat Syed Shah Mustafa Sher-E-Sowar Chabukmar Baghdadi (RA) for preaching Islam, Moulvibazar became famous.
In 1882 Maulvi Bazar was declared a sub-division under the name of “South Sylhet”. Later during the Pakistan period it was named as Moulvibazar.

Specialty of Maulovi Bazar: This is an exceptional district with 92 tea gardens which made it one of the most beautiful places of Bangladesh. This district is also home of the three largest tea gardens in the world. Sreemongal of this district is known as the ‘tea capital of Bangladesh’.
Pineapples of Sreemangal are famous for their flavor and taste.

Maulvi Bazar Town
Maulvi Bazar Municipality was established in 1930. This town stands on the bank of the River Manu. It consists of 9 wards and 47 mahallasthe town has an area of 10.36 sq km with a population of 41358. Among them male are 54.97% and female 45.03%. The density of population is very high. It is 3992 per sq km. Literacy rate among the town people is 56.7. The town has one Circuit House and one Rest House. Pashchim Bazar and Chowmuhana are the main commercial centers. The shrine of Hazrat Shah Mustafa is in this town.

Attractive places of Maulvi Bazar

  • Archaeological heritage
  • The shrine of Shah Mustafa. (A companion of Shah Jalal.)
  • Khoja Mosque (Barlekha, 16th century).
  • Madhab Mandir (near the Madhabkunda water fall).
  • Rangirkul Viddyashram (19th century, Kulaura upazila).
  • Nawab Bari of Pritthim Pasha (first quarter of 18th century).
  • The temple of Agnian Thakur.
  • Nirmmai Shib-Bari [1454, Gaiyebi Eter Masjid at the premises of the tomb of Kazi Khandker (R)].
  • Persian manuscripts of Firoz Shah Tuglak’s period (1330 AD).
  • Statue of Ananta Naraiyan (11th century, preserved in the Calcutta Museum)

Natural beauties:

  • Madhabkunda waterfall (Barlekha).
  • Hakaluki Haor.
  • Madhobpur Lake.
  • Bilashchhara Lake.
  • Lawachara National Park (A rain forest in Kamalganj upazilla).

About Shakilah

Loves history, culture and traveling to new places!