Abstract

Bangladesh emerged as an independent and sovereign republic on 16 December 1971. With a population
of about 120 million squeezed into about 55,598 square miles, it is one of the most densely populated countries of the world. Bangladesh is surrounded by India in the north, west, and east and shares a considerable length of border with Myanmar (Burma) in the east. It is a land of rivers and a formation of delta of Gangetic plain. Bangladesh is classified as one of the least developed countries under UN General Assembly resolution 5487 (XXX).

It is a geographically disadvantaged state in the context of UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, 1982. To the south lies the deeply indented coastline of the Bay of Bengal. The soils of Bangladesh’s excessively humid plains are swampy, and most of the delta regions possess young alluvial soils of considerable fertility. Older, less fertile alluvium also occurs, notably in Barind, between Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers in the northwest corner of the country.