Food | Mountain | Culture | Business | Island
How about if we can visit mangrove forest, pan barge, zero point of an island in one day, get acquainted with different societies and cultures and the most interesting part of the trip is eating bean by fire and witnessing a sight-seeing jetty and adjacent to it. Nayana Biram can sit in the sitting place; Again going to the desired place, running through the middle of the sea and the sound of water splashing; With the joy of catching water with hands, etc.
Introduction
Yes you read that right! All this is possible if we are the only mountain island in the south of Bangladesh whose name is Maheshkhali. Maheshkhali is the only mountain island in Bangladesh which consists of four different islands. Among them, Maheshkhali is the largest island and the remaining three islands are Sonadia, Matarbari and Dhalghata.
Creation of The Island
Maheshkhali Island is the only mountainous island in Bangladesh. Maheshkhali upazila was earlier attached to the mainland. In 1559 AD, this island was created after it was separated from the mainland by a huge storm and tidal wave. Maheshkhali thana was formed in 1954 and in 1983 this thana was converted into an upazila.
This upazila has one municipality and eight unions. The area of Maheshkhali Island is 86000 acres. The main livelihood of the people here is through salt production and betel cultivation. Betel nut, fish, dried fruit, shrimp, salt production and pearl production have given this upazila a distinct identity. All over the island there is a large scale production of salt and betel.
How to go
If you want to go to Maheshkhali by road, you can go directly to Maheshkhali Upazila Administrator’s Office / Upazila Parishad via Shaplapur Road, crossing Badarkhali Bridge, passing through Thana Road, Dhaka-Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar Arakan Highway. Moreover, if you want to visit Cox’s Bazar, you can enter through Maheshkhali Jetty by trawler or speed boat from Ghat No. 6 of Cox’s Bazar Sadar.
Maheshkhali is among the places to visit
- Adinath Temple and Market
- Big Rakhine neighborhood Buddhist temple
- Sonadia beach
- Maheshkhali Jetty and Adinath New Jetty
- Mangrove forest
- Zhou garden
- Charpara beach
etc. are significant.
Livelihood
Maheshkhali betel is very famous as misty betel to the people of Bangladesh and it is one of the largest betel production areas. The most attractive aspect for the tourists is the drinking of bean by setting fire in the bean. Apart from traveling to Maheshkhali, one can see shutki processing or manufacturing fields in some isolated places.
The main vehicles here are electric easy bikes, rickshaws and CNG autorickshaws; Through this, the entire Maheshkhali Sadar can be seen. A visit to Maheshkhali Zero Point offers a well-planned fort along with mangrove forests. There are two jetties in Maheshkhali out of which Adinath new jetty is very beautiful and is 0.74 km long. Adinath temple can be entered only through this Adinath jetty.
Accomodation
There are many small hotels and restaurants in Maheshkhali, but if you want to stay in a government hotel, there is an Upazila Dakbangla and before going there you have to confirm the hotel booking which you can get by going to the government website designated for Maheshkhali.
