50 facts about Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan)

The People’s Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign and peculiar country in South Asia. So unique that elephants receive money in the streets and people practice a sport that remembers the ‘You’re it’ game we used to play as kids. Let’s enumerate 50, or less, facts about this country without any specific order. Bangladesh is tied as the seventh most densely-populated country in the world, with 1.157 people per square kilometer. But the countries ahead of Bangladesh in the list are most city-states countries like Monaco, Macau or Vatican City, only Bahrein is the mainstream country more populated than Bangladesh. It is also the eight most populated country in the world, with a population of 166 543 470 people, having 2.16% of the human population, more than countries like Russia or Japan. The 92nd biggest country in the world, with a territory of 147, 570 km2, 9.6% of which is water. The country has three different weather seasons. First, a mild winter from October to March. Then a humid summer from March to June, and from June to October there is a warm and humid monsoon, that is when the territory is supplied with most of the rainfalls. By the way, a monsoon is a change in the pattern of wind circulation in the atmosphere, triggering precipitations in the area affected. Rain is a thing here. In 1998, the country suffered the most severe flooding in world modern history: when the Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna rivers split over and put two-thirds of the country territory underwater. The floods left 30 million people homeless, a thousand dead, 50km2 of land destroyed and 11 000 km of road damaged. The third longest beach in the world and the longest natural beach is in Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, in the south of the country, with an entire length of 120km. They also recorded the deadliest tornado in history: in 1989 a tornado in the Manikganj District killed 1 300 people. The heaviest hail ever found fell in Gopalganj District in 1986. It weighted 1.02kg. There are more than 700 rivers in the territory, around 60 of them are shared with India. The Surma-Meghna, with 669 km of length, is the longest in the country. The five rivers networks in the country play a key role in terms of economy, agriculture, and transportation. Bangladesh and India share the world’s largest delta river, the Ganges Delta, covering an area of 105 000 km2, one of the most fertile lands in the world. The Delta gets rivers from Tibet, Buthan, Nepal, India and Bangladesh. In the last century, 508 cyclones have affected the southern region of the country, affecting agriculture, human health, food security, and shelter. Eighty-six of them have produced landfalls. As phenomena like cyclones increases with climate change, it is estimated that by 2050, the sea level rise will flood 20% of the territory, displacing more than 30 million people. It is fair to say that Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries by global warming. Bangladesh is the second country in the world with more enclaves, most of them in the border with the Indian state of West Bengal. Inside mainland India, there are 28 732 m2 of Bangladeshi enclaves and 69 444 m2 of Indian enclaves in the Bangladesh mainland. In that area, we have one of the few third order enclaves in the world, that’s “geographical inception” where a piece of India, is in a Bangladeshi territory surrounded by an Indian enclave in mainland Bangladesh. The governments signed a Land Boundary Agreement in 2011 intending to exchange land and simplify the border. They got their independence from the UK in 1947 with the name of East Pakistan, and used to be controlled by West Pakistan (current Pakistan), then in 1971 East Pakistan got their full independence and renamed to Bangladesh. The name Bangladesh means “The Country of Bengal,” and the word “Bengal” derives from the Banga kingdom, an ancient kingdom located around the Ganges Delta. We have a video about country names if you want to check it out. The form of government is a unitary state, with increasing autocratic practices, where the supreme power lies in a single person, with a unicameral parliament. The official language is Bengali and is spoken by 260 million people around the world. It’s also the official language in the eastern states of India too. 90% of the population practices Islam. The reason why the circle in the flag is not in the center is so it looks centered when the flag is waving. --------------------- Footage from: MrBrynnorth, Indigo Traveler, Steff Hoffer, Al Jazeera, Deutsche Welle, ICC, pivot.com. Here at Explainosphere, we like explaining things. As curious and eccentric as they may seem, we believe there is always someone, somewhere, trying to figure out how things work. If we answered your question about Bangladesh, leave us a message in the comments.