Recently I’ve visited the coral island located on the bay in the Bay of Bengal on the southeast of Bangladesh. From administrative side, this island is an island and union of Teknaf upazila under Cox’s Bazar district of Chittagong division. I along with some of my friends as well colleges. It was a noce and awesome place to visit. I’m shaing some information about the artistic beautiful place of Bangladesh.
Saint Martin Island is not known when the start of the journey of people on this island first. It is believed that once the Arab merchants temporarily carried ships on the island to take shelter by sea. At this time some Arab merchants named the island the Jinjira. By the time, people of Chittagong and adjacent people knew this island as jinjira.
In 1890, some Bengali and Rakhine people came to settle for this island. They were mainly fishermen. As far as it is known, 13 families were settled as the first inhabitants. They chose the northern part of the island. In time, this island became an area of Bengali population. As per the 2006 census, its population is 7,000. And its density is 875 per square kilometer.
From the very beginning of this island there were Keya and Zhaugas. Perhaps the Bengali fishermen planted a lot of coconut trees on this island as a means of watering and exhaustion. In the course of time, the whole island once became the ‘Coconut tree’ island. In this formula, local residents named coconut jinzira on the northern side of the island.
In the year 1900, the British Geo group adopted this island as part of British India. Instead, they named Saint Martin after the name of Christian St. Martin. Then slowly, to the people outside the region, the island became known as St. Martin. During the Partition of Pakistan in 1947, this island was included in East Pakistan. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the island was included in Bangladesh.
Geographical location: 92 ° 18 ‘to 92 ° 21’ east longitude and 20 ° 34 ‘to 20 ° 39’ north latitude. Its average height is 3.6 meters from sea level. The distance from Teknaf upazila is 9 km. The distance from the coast of Myanmar to the west side of the Naf River is 8 kilometers. It is 120 kilometers away from Cox’s Bazar district town.
Size of St. Martin:
The island, which stretches north-northwest and south-southeast by the sea in the Bay of Bengal, is approximately 7.315 kilometers long. The entire island is divided into 3 parts. The northern part is called coconut jinzira. Local people call it answer. The length of this part is 2,134 meters long and the width is 1,402 meters. The relatively narrow part of the middle is called galachipa. The southern part is called Southern Para. Its width is 975 meters high. Though this part is said to be about 1930 meters in length, it is difficult to accurately estimate the length of this length. Because the shallow groundland is a large part of southern part of southpara. Several parts of it wake up on water during the tide, but the tide drowns. Inside a part of it is known as the crucifix. It was originally named as Chhadadia or Siradia. There is also the Cinnamon Island and its adjacent shallow wetlands. Together with Dakshaparara these terrains are connected with each other like a fitta. This shallow part is full of uneven coral reefs.
St. Martin’s origin
In the era of quaternary, the last ice age of the world came down. This ice age is generally called icestyle in the Pleistocene or Quaternary Ice Age. This ice age took place during geologic period split between Holocene sub-biorial (5,000-200 BCE) in the middle of the quaternary era. At approximately 4,000 BCE, the settlement of coral reefs under this region of the present Bay of Bengal continued to form and the formation of this coral island began. The major coral reefs of this island are: Porites lobata and some species of Acropora.
Nature of St. Martin
With the coral reefs, the seams and molluscs of the different species of molluscs, riverbed sediments and sand have formed strong ground. The rise of the land around this island is still in progress. The annual average amount of this rise is 19 millimeters.
Around the island there are uneven coral stones. If you do not walk carefully with bare legs, there is a possibility of foot cuts. There is a sandfly on the bare foot of the island, to some extent on the adjoining beach of the islands of the island. Sometimes the coral pieces are seen. The sandy part of the beach is not suitable for agriculture. There is no tree in this area.
Biosphere on the island of St. Martin
To say that the indigenous indigenous people of this islands are coral. The sandy part of this island has a lot of small crab When the tide goes down, there is a lot of crazy holes on the beach. They picked up the soil and made a strange kind of alps. We see the alpana that is associated with the Bengali culture, with its crab-making alpana beauty is not less than a part of it.
Crab made alpana
The waves of the stormy sea are observed in the southern part of the island. In comparison, the ocean of its west is quite calm. In the west, relatively more coral reefs.
A lot of Keya trees are on the verandah of its high plains. The top soil-rich areas are suitable for cultivation. There is plenty of coconut, kia, zhao, bamboo etc. in the highlands. Besides, various types of mainland trees have been planted in the tourist cottages. Natural disasters such as marine tidal waves or tsunamis have not hit the island yet. The island is safe to live in this trial. Have you seen the pictures? Aren’t awesome?
