Bangladesh
I had a month`s working trip to the Indian sub-continent covering all four major nations. Started by landing in the Bangladesh capital, Dacca in the middle of the monsoon and immediately appreciating just how flat and wet the majority of the country is. Much of the land is covered by the Bramaputra-Ganges flood plain and water is a major transport route but even in the towns there is water (and grinding poverty) everywhere. Most standing water is full of beautiful (but aggressive) Water Hyacinth. However the flood plain also offers locals an extremely rich and fertile soil so the flooding risks are accepted as just a normal part of life. I was met by our factory manager who immediately took me to a local "tea-room" for a glass of lassi and some extremely tasty local cakes and pastries - I could have been in Tunbridge Wells apart from the noise and bustle outside. Lassi is a drink which I met all over the sub-continent. It`s a sort of yogurt based drink and although I`m not a yogurt lover it was pleasant and refreshing. Over our refreshments the principle topic was cricket! Yes this was part of the British Empire and the cricket infection remains. Outside was bedlam with a mixture of bicycles, mopeds and tuk-tuk taxis. Bangladesh has the 8th biggest population in the world. Pollution is now a major issue in and around Dacca, particularly air pollution in the winter months. But as in Pakistan the one piece of wildlife that caught my attention was the masses of Red Kites which seem to thrive on the mess and detritis of humanity.
Apart from me the only other westerners arriving in the airport seemed to be `beautiful people` on their way to Katmadu to consult with gurus, meditate and find themselves. The factory was a little way out of Dacca at Narayanganj and we drove there daily. It was like an oasis amonghst all the squalor. with a couple of huge trees providing shade and ambiance inside the walls. For locals getting a job there was a big thing because both the working conditions and the `perks` were excellent including things like healthcare which was unheard of generally. Lunch was taken close by at the Narayanganj men`s club - another oasis for the burgoning middle class workers in the area. Two fish that I was served were both excellent . . . Fried pomfret and smoked hilsa. The entire area between Dacca and Narayanganj was full of jute growing. Jute produces a soft, long lustrous fibre which has to be seperated before it can be used in the manufacture of products like hessian, fibre sacks, carpeting, twine, rope and matting, etc. On the approach of our Land Rover the locals would rush out and throw the recently harvested stems across the road so that our wheels crushed them and helped ease the seperation process which otherwise is extremely tedious and manual in nature! The presence of so much standing water meant of course mosquitoes everywhere and repellants was mandatory to avoid mosqito-born diseases like dengue fever (aka break-bone fever) which is like having extreme influenza whilst being run over by a road roller.
Other crops grown in this highly fertile land that I spotted were mango, jackfruit, coconut, date palms and betel nut. The latter is chewed all over the subcontinent and is thought to be a major cause of oral cancer in the region. Even with it`s massive population the country still manages to hang onto some significant areas of mangrove and wildlife - in particular the Sundarbans host the Royal Bengal Tigers. There are also populations of more than 100 mammals including black bears, Asian elephants, gibbons, black panthers, clouded leopards and a wide range of deers. Despite the population pressures and wildlife protection areas Bangladesh is one of Asia`s bigger natural gas producers and more than half the country`s electricity is generated using it and it possesses major reserves yet to be touched. It also produces significant quantities of agricultural products like rice, potatoes fruit and farmed fish and has one of the world`s oldest tea industries. Domesticated water buffaloes are everywhere used both for pulling carts but also for ploughing.
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