Environmental Studies and Disaster Management

In the fifth volume of his collected works, the author brings together selected papers, updated by footnotes, which provide an historical perspective on Bangladesh's dynamic land use and the evolving approaches to rural development planning in the 1970s and 1980s.

Based on the author's more than twenty years experience of soils and agricultural development in Bangladesh, this fourth volume of his collected work brings together selected papers, updated by footnotes, describing the relationships between environmental factors and Bangladesh's unique agricultural systems. The book is aimed particularly at university and college teachers through whom the author hopes to pass on his accumulated experience to the next generation of agricultural research scientists.

This book illustrates the uncertainties of the lives of the inhabitants of ‘Char’ lands (reclaimed land) in Bangladesh. Flooding and riverbank erosion are endemic features in the areas close to the major rivers in Bangladesh. The rivers also throw up fertile lands that cause violent clashes between competing camps. Such violence has been examined against the backdrop and compulsions of cropping phenophases. With the help of several case studies, the book describes the survival strategies of the ‘char’ lands.