Chittagong Hill Tracts



The Chittagong (Chadigang) Hill Tracts (পার্বত্য চট্টগ্রাম), often shortened to simply the Hill Tracts and abbreviated to CHT, are a group of districts within the Chittagong Division in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering India and Myanmar (Burma) in the east. Covering 13295 km2, they formed a single district until 1984, when they were divided into three districts: Khagrachhari, Rangamati, and Bandarban.

Topographically, the Hill Tracts are the only extensively hilly area in Bangladesh. It was historically settled by many tribal refugees from Burma Arakan in the 16th century and now it is settled by the Jumma people. Today, it remains one of the least developed parts of Bangladesh.

The Chittagong Hill Tracts along with Sikkim, Tawang, Darjeeling, Bhutan, and Sri Lanka, constitute some of the remaining abodes of Buddhism in South Asia.

Geography
The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the only extensive hilly area in Bangladesh, lie in the southeastern part of the country (210 25' N to 230 45' N latitude and 910 54' E to 920 50' E longitude) bordering Myanmar on the southeast, the Indian state of Tripura on the north, Mizoram on the east and Chittagong district on the west. The area of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is about 13, 184 km2, which is approximately one-tenth of the total area of Bangladesh. The Chittagong Hill Tracts combine three hilly districts of Bangladesh: Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban districts.

The mountainous rugged terrain with deep forests, lakes and falls gives it a different character from the rest of Bangladesh.

Demography
According to the census of 1991, the population was 974,447, of whom 501,114 were tribal people and the rest were from the Bengali (Muslim and Hindu) community. The tribal populations include the Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Tanchangya, Assamese, Keot (Kaibarta), Chak, Pankho, Mro, Murang, Bom, Lushei, Khyang, and Khumi, and differ markedly from the Bengali majority of Bangladesh in language, ethnicity and religion.

The population of the three districts (zilas) totalled 1,842,815 in the returns of the census of 2022, making the population density roughly 120 per km2. Tribes are mainly followers of Buddhism (41.74%). The percentages of Muslims are: Bandarban 52.68%, Khagrachari 46.56% and Rangamati 36.22%. Most of the Christian population is in Bandarban.

History
It was the warzone between the Arakan Kingdom, Chakma kingdom and the Twipra Kingdom.

In the early 15th century the Chakma people came from Arakan (Burma) due to defeat from the Rakhine king. The Chakma are the single largest tribe, comprising half of the tribal population. The Marma people are the second largest tribe. They came from Burma when Arakan was conquered by Burmese king Bodawpaya. The Place was ruled by the Chakma king there was a conflict between the Chakma king and Mughals in which the Chakma king agreed to pay tribute of cotton to the Mughals

Mughal and early British records name the region Jum Bungoo, Jum mahal or Kapas mahal. In 1787, the East India Company made the region its tributary after battling Chakma raja and agreeing on peace treaty.

Under British control, the British East India Company in order to suppress the Chakma queen power Kalindi Rani divided the hills into three parts. This was done in regional areas known as Chakma Circle, Mong Circle, and Bohmong Circle. The early colonial history of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is a record of recurring raids by the eastern hill tribes (Mizo or Lushai) and of the operations undertaken by the British to repress them.

British rule
The use of the name Chittagong for this area dates to the 1860 British annexation of the region, bringing it under the direct control of British India. Situated beyond the inland hills, Chittagong proper is a coastal area in the plains where the British were based. As colonial influence grew, "Chittagong" enlarged as well, expanding eastwards to subsume the Hill Tracts under its revenue-collection territory.

The recorded population increased from 69,607 in 1872 to 101,597 in 1881, to 107,286 in 1891, and to 124,762 in 1901. The census of 1872 was, however, very imperfect, and the actual population growth probably did not exceed what might be expected in a sparsely inhabited but fairly healthy tract.

When the 1901 census was taken there were no towns, and 211 of the villages had populations of less than 500 apiece; only one exceeded 2,000. The population density, excluding the area of uninhabited forest (1,385 square miles), was 33 persons per square mile. There was a little immigration from Chittagong, and a few persons had emigrated to Tripura. The proportion of females to every 100 males was only 90 in the district-born and 83 in the total population. Buddhists numbered 83,000, Hindus 36,000, and Muslims 5,000.

Tobacco cultivation
Tobacco cultivation is damaging the ecology of the area, with the loss of indigenous trees such as Chukrasia tabularis (Indian mahogany), and soil fertility.

Most of the farmers of Rangamati, Bandarban, and Khagrachhari have been losing their interest in cultivating their own indigenous crops after defaulting on loans provided by tobacco companies.

Environmental issues


Like other mountainous areas in South and Southeast Asia, the Chittagong Hill Tracts are undergoing deforestation and land degradation arising from environmentally unsuitable activities such as tobacco cultivation in sloping land, shifting cultivation and logging. Shifting cultivation, also known as slash-and-burn agriculture or swidden cultivation, embraces a large variety of primitive forms of agriculture. It is a unique stage in the evolution from hunting and food gathering to sedentary farming. Humankind began to change its mode of life from food gatherer to food producer about 7000 B.C. by adopting shifting cultivation. Some form of shifting cultivation has been practised in most parts of the world, but more intensive forms of agriculture have subsequently replaced it.

The present shifting cultivation system with short fallow period in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has accelerated erosion, land degradation, deforestation, and impoverishment of tribal people in CHT. If the present state of degradation is continued, most of the areas under shifting cultivation will be severely degraded and future generations will face more difficulties in eking out their livelihoods on further degraded land, although there is some scope for shifting cultivators to leave the degraded fields and move to other areas. It is estimated that on average eight hectares of land is necessary for the sustenance of a family in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. If this ratio is adopted, 1,240,000 ha land is required to sustain the present population; however, the total land available, excluding the reserve forest, is 928,000 ha. Shifting cultivation, therefore, cannot fulfill even the subsistence requirements of the people. In such a situation, either large non-farm employment opportunities need to be created or more productive land-use systems need to be developed and adopted. Given the sluggish growth of the economy, there is limited scope for generating adequate non-farming employment opportunities in the near future. It is, therefore, imperative to replace the present shifting cultivation system with more productive and sustainable land use systems to enable people to secure their livelihoods.