Visiting the Tea Fields of Sylet – Bangladesh

Sylhet, formerly Srihatta or Sri-hat meaning ‘Central Bazar’ or from the Arabic term Serhed meaning frontier town. The city, northeast of Bangladesh, is situated northeast of Dhaka [the capital Bangladesh], on the right bank of the River Surma, and is a trade and administrative centre of an important agricultural area.

Before 1947, Sylhet was part of Assam State [India]. The city is the processing and marketing centre for the agricultural products of the Surma Valley, particularly cotton, oil-seeds, jute, rice, sugar cane, and tea. Sylhet also has some manufacturing industry, and adjacent coal, peat, and natural gas deposits. In the beginning, Sylhet was an inland river port, the port declined with the increased sedimentation of the River Surma. Its trade decreased further after the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan [see History Page], when much of the port’s former trade was diverted to India.

The area of Sylhet has the best climate in the country i.e. it is temperate cool with clean fresh air in winter, and moderately warm in summer.

Sylhet has more than 150 tea estates, that covering the area nearly 45000 hectares = (111 000 acres), (174 square miles), (450 square km), (450 000 000 square metres), generating almost 40 million kg of tea annually, particularly for export market. Which is the third largest income sources of Bangladesh.

Sylhet is considered the richest region of the country, with its agricultural produce, as well as oranges, pineapples and mangos, and mineral resources which include gas reserves and there also government report on oil deposits. Sylhet has manufacturing industries like tea processing, cement, urea fertiliser and paper, but the city of Sylhet needs major plan development and government investment.

The region of Sylhet is fed by two rivers such as Kusiyara and the Surma. The Surma river passes through the City of Sylhet and joins the mighty Meghna (another river) further south of Sylhet.