Kutubdia Island

Kutubdia is a low island off the Chittagong coast, flat and open, given over largely to salt production, with fields of evaporation pans worked through the dry season and mounds of harvested salt along the tracks, and a wind farm that was among the first in the country. Its lighthouse, built in the nineteenth century, has been undermined by erosion and stands damaged near the shoreline, which is the visible face of a bigger problem: the island has lost a great deal of land to the sea and to cyclones, and embankments are repeatedly breached. There is a Sufi shrine that draws pilgrims. It is not set up for visitors and the interest is in seeing a working, eroding delta island rather than any sight.

What you actually see

• Salt evaporation fields - the pans and mounds worked in the dry season.
• The eroding lighthouse - the nineteenth-century tower undermined by the sea.
• Wind turbines - among the first wind generation in the country.
• Breached embankments - the sea defences and the land being lost.

When to go

November to March, which is also the salt season. A day including the crossing. Boats run from Magnama ghat. There is little accommodation, so it is a day trip.

Honest expectations

There is no tourism infrastructure at all: no hotels worth the name, no restaurants, no signage. Boat crossings are overloaded and safety is poor. It is flat and hot with no shade. The interest is documentary rather than scenic.

Nearby

Chakaria is on the mainland; Cox's Bazar lies south.