Summary of data for the month of November 1970 to March,1971°
Station: Forest Research Institute,Chittagong:
Time of observation: 0800 hours

From last issue.
1. FOREST INFLUENCE AND WATERSHED MANAGEMENT IN EAST PAKISTAN :
Background informations :
(a) East Pakistan is a land of rivers . The importance of rivers in
the socio-economic life of East Pakistan is phenomenol . But unfortunately
the watersheds of the most of rivers in East Pakistan are outside the
political boundaries • Almost all the watersheds of the rivers coming from
Chittagong Hill Tracts and parts of watersheds of the rivers flowing from
southern hills of Sylhet district are,however, in East Pakistan •

Forest research does not in general-require sophisticated
techniques and elaborate equipment • It does, however, more
often than not require considerable time and considerable space.
One of the effects of the sheer size of forest research
projects is that the planning and scheduling of research
procedures over time become important • It may also become
a difficult task •

ABSTRACT.
Albizzia is a very fast-growing hardwood species. Albizzia Procera
is used for furniture making and is being cultivated in the forest •
Albizzia Moluccana is planted in the tea gardens as a shade tree •
Hardboards have been made from the two species individually and in a
50:50 mixture • Individually Albizzia Procera gives a better board than
Albizzia Moluccana • The mixture of the species yields a good quality
board, though a little inferior to the Albizzia Procera boards. The
strength properties were comparable to those of other boards made from
various tropical hardwood species. The water resistance properties were
moderate which improved but little on simple /— -treatment. Oil tempering,
however , improved the water-repellancy greatly •

East Pakistan has an area of 55126 square miles • Out of this ,
about 8,800 square miles comprising part of Chittagong, Noajchali
Patuakhali, Barisal and Khulna Districts including all Off-shore
Islands come under the Cyclonic Belt and Tidal bore zone • As per 1961
Census , the population of these five Districts is 96,27,843 • A part
of this population is being affected every year by the Cyclone and tidal
Lore more frequently since i960 . On the black 12th November, the
cyclone and tidal waves struct 14 Police Stations of these Coastal
Districts inhabited by about 31 Lakhs of people spread over 2600 square
miles of area causing lakhs to die and damage to property including
live-stock worth crores of Rupees ( not yet fully estimated ).
The Bay of Bengal is one of the World’s great producers of
tropical storm . This Bay produces regularly about half a dozen of
Cyclones in a year • All are not equally serious, but one out of six
hits with full force • The structure , size and speed of these cyclones
are well known t0;he meteorologists . The Geography of the Bay of Bengal
is such that the effect of these Cyclones is magnified in the form of
tidal bore • The shape o^4his Bay is just like a funnel and the sea
bed over which it passes, gradually shallows to the broken coast lines .
So the cyclone moving towards north here produces the biggest wave in
the world which ultimately hit the coast line of the Bay. of .Bengal…

Sylhet district’ has an area of 4,785 square miles and a population
of 34,89,589’as per 1961 census.Government Forests cover an area of
300.91 square miles with following, break up
Reserve Forest 150*99 square miles
A.F. and proposed R.F. 149*92
300.91 square miles.
It is the reserved and part of the acquired forests that still
remains in condition both on paper as well as on the ground *
Most of the forests are located close to the international
boundary and is scattered all over the district • In the past-these
forests were jhumed by Tippras and in order to stop further deterioration
of these areas due to jhuming etc. catchment areas of main cheras which
had some sort of forest cover were gradually proposed for reservation
long before 1947 • Assam Government of those days, .realized the gravity
of the situation that laid to investigation of the land use pattern of
Sylhet district by competent people »