Himchari National Park (Bengali: হিমছড়ি জাতীয় উদ্যান) is a major national park and nature reserve in Bangladesh. The park is located at Ramu and Cox's Bazar Sadar Upazila, Cox's Bazar District, in the southeast region of the country. It is located mainly on the hills and is adjoining to Bay of Bengal to the west.
Himchari National Park covers approximately 1,729 ha (17.29 km2) of mixed evergreen forests Biome. It was declared a protected area in 1980.[1]
Location
It is located 13 km East of Cox's Bazar town.
The overall appearance of the forest is various patches of dense forest and grass lands. The climate is generally humid and warm. The park has tropical monsoons from June to September every year. The soil is loamy, clay and sandy loam at various places.[citation needed]
Administration
The entire forest area is managed and is under the jurisdiction of Cox's Bazar South Forest Division. There are four forest beats in the parks namely Kolatoli, Chainda, Jhilongja and Link Road.The place is visited mostly for the famous broken hills and Row of christmas trees.[2]
There are 4000 people living inside the National park area. They are mostly migrants and are involved in fishing and cultivation for their livelihood.[citation needed]
Threats
The loss of tree diversity and population is due to encroachment for cultivation, invasion of weed species, grazing of cattle, collection of minor forest produces and fuel wood, fire hazard, expansion of network of roads and other infrastructure projects.