Lawachara
National Park covers approximately 1,250 ha (12.5 km2) of semi-evergreen
forests of the Tropical and subtropical coniferous
forests Biome and mixed deciduous
forests of the Tropical and
subtropical moist broadleaf forests Biome. The land was
declared a national park by the Bangladesh government on July 7, 1996 under the
Wildlife Act of 1974.
Lawachara is about
160 km (99 mi) northeast of Dhaka and 60 km
(37 mi) from Sylhet. It is 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) from the town of Srimongal.
The
terrain of Lawachara is undulating with scattered 10 to 50 m (33 to
164 ft) hillocks. Locally known as tila, the hillocks are primarily
composed of Upper Tertiary soft sandstone.
The park is crossed by numerous sandy-bedded streams (locally known as nallah),
one of which is the Lawachara tributary,
from which the park derived its name.[3]The
soil of Lawachara is alluvial brown sandy clay loam to clay loam dating from
the Pliocene epoch.
Shallow depressions filled with water (haor wetlands) are
also a feature of the region as the low-lying areas are often subject to flooding.
The climate of
Lawachara is generally pleasant to warm, averaging at 26.8 °C
(80.2 °F) in February to 36.1 °C (97.0 °F) in June. The humidity is
high throughout the year, and Lawachara experiences frequent rains with
occasional cyclonic storms.
Biological diversity in the Lawachara
National Park consists of 460 species, of which 167 species are plants, 4 amphibian species,
6 reptile species, 246 bird species, 20 mammal species,
and 17 insectspecies.
One of this is the critically endangered western hoolock gibbons, of which only 62
individuals remain in the area.
The forest of Lawachara
is of a mixed type, with the understory usually
composed of evergreens, including Quercus,Syzygium, Gmelina, Dillenia, Grewia, and Ficus. The upper canopy,
meanwhile, is mainly composed of tall deciduous trees
including Tectona, Artocarpus chaplasha, Tetrameles, Hopea odorata. Toona ciliata,
and Pygenum. The original indigenousmixed tropical evergreen vegetation
had been removed or replaced in the 1920s. It
is now mostly secondary forest with small remnant areas
of rich primary forest.
In the undergrowth are bamboo groves
of jai bansh (Bambusa burmanica) and
muli bansh (Melocanna baccifera),as well as several fern species and
other epiphytes.
159
plant species belonging
to 123 genera and
60 families were studied in 2010. It includes
78 species of trees, 14 species ofshrubs, 42 species of herbs, and 25 species of climbers. Ficus (fig trees) and Syzygium (brush
cherries), each with 7 species, were the most diverse genera. Other notable
genera include Terminalia, Dioscorea (yams), Artocarpus, Calamus (rattan
palm), Piper (pepper vines), Alpinia,
and Curcuma.
Threatened indigenous plant species include Bridelia retusa