Noakhali is a non-forest district of East Pakistan.
The problems of this district are many-fold of which the natural
calamities such as floods, tidal waves and Cyclone are the most
important. The district is located on the north of Bay of Bengal
which is notoriously a Cyclonic zone. The entire district is
flat, intercepted by mighty rivers and their delta. The Southern
part consists of a number of islands.which are continuously being
silted and enlarged. New islands are being formed due to siltation and appear only at low tide. The general level of the district
is a little above Sea level and a slight tidal wave causes destruction to houses and crops. It appears from historical records
that prior to 20th century the area was fully vegetated where
special efforts were made to colonize people by giving special
facilities in the remission of land revenue and cash advances etc.
In the beginning the Colonization was slow , most probably because
of the known ravages of the climatic factor due to its location.
The economic gains appear to have been so promising that in spite
of the dangers of climatic ravages the colonization progressed
steadily but slowly and at prese