Chalan Beel

Chalan Beel is the largest beel system in Bangladesh, a depression spread across several districts of the north-west that fills through the monsoon into a shallow sea dotted with village mounds and crossed by boats, then drains through the winter into a patchwork of pools, paddy and mustard fields, so the same ground is water for half the year and farmland for the other. In the wet months boats move between villages and markets across open water; in winter the remaining pools carry wintering ducks and the fishery works the falling water with nets and traps. It is a working landscape rather than a reserve, and seeing it means hiring a country boat at a market ghat and going out among the villages.

History

The rivers of Bengal carry great loads of silt, which built the land and keeps shifting their courses, and the depression of Chalan Beel probably lies between the ground raised in the north by the Teesta, active here until it changed course in 1787, and that raised in the south by the Padma, which took the main flow of the Ganges from the 16th century. Van den Broucke's map of Bengal of 1660 shows the Padma flowing through Faridpur and Bakarganj, and its later shifts may also have shaped the beel (Wikipedia, Chalan Beel).

What you'll find

• A shallow sea in the monsoon - villages standing on mounds in open water.
• Boats as the only transport - movement between markets across the beel.
• Winter duck flocks - birds on the remaining pools.
• The fishery on falling water - nets and traps as the beel drains.

When to go

August to October for the full water and the boat landscape; December to February for birds and the mustard fields. A day. Boats are hired at ghats and prices negotiated.

Things to know

There is no tourism infrastructure whatsoever. The experience depends on a boatman and a bit of Bengali or a local companion. The beel is shrinking from siltation and encroachment. Sun on open water is fierce.

Nearby

Natore is west; the Hardinge Bridge lies south.

Key facts