GENERAL:
- Khulna is the 3rd largest city and 2nd largest sea port of Bangladesh
- the city is developed on artificially raised lands
CLIMATE
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
- British period: agriculture --> market place
- 1904: Calcutta - Jessore - Khulna railway opened
- 1947: partition --> Muslim refugees India --> Bangladesh
- sea port: became nerve centre of jute trade of Bangladesh
- 1965: Calcutta riots: more Muslims India à Bangladesh + migration from rural areas
> population grew rapidly which induced problems
industrial development:
60s ↑
70s ↓ but population kept ↑
≠ industrial employment
POPULATION
density
migrants
- 53%
- main causes are poverty, famine, natural hazards and unemployment
- tendency to stay in Khulna
- most migrants are very young, unmarries men of whom 1/3 is illiterate
LANDUSE
summary of: CUS report, Chapter II Khulna City: general introduction, in: “Population and Migration Characteristics in Khulna City”, Khulna: CUS report, 1981.
2 comments:
GROWTH OF RURAL HABITATIONS :
BANGLADESH EXPERIENCE
(GRADUAL GROWTH OF RURAL HABITATIONS IN A RIVERINE COUNTRY, BANGLADESH
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO KHULNA REGION).
INTRODUCTION :
Today’s cities started growing long ago in the nature-created earth at a time when there was no efficient system of documentation. Naturally, for the sake of understanding the phenomenon we need to re-build those. We shall present an empirical model, i.e. model prepared on the basis of theoretical information and best possibilities, of the growth and developments of the rural habitation or a village in a site by the side of a river.
VILLAGE AS AGGLOMERATION OF HOUSES :
(Ref. Fig. No. 01) : The river runs by the side of the rural land. The road or walkway, that also acted as embankment runs parallel to the river, but at a distance because of unpredictability of the course of the river and probable soil erosion. At locations at few miles apart there were ferry ghats, where people used to assemble to cross the river in country boats. The raised road prevented the agricultural land from flood. The agro-producers used to produce crops in the agricultural field by using bullock and plough and country-made equipments. They used to live in groups in ‘Village’. The village was usually located in between the river and the walking road because of the reasons (i) ease of collection of water from the river, (ii) accessibility from both the road and river and (iii) security from the robbers.
Fig.- 01: SETTLEMENT PATTERN BEFORE LAND SURVEY OF 1797
INDEPENDENT HOUSES ON PLOTS :
(Ref :Fig. No. 02) : In 1757 the land came under the British East India Company and later, in 1858, the imperial British government. Up to 1796, the farmers were charged for tax on the basis of the land they used for agro-production. After 1797 land on the other side of the road or embankment was measured and documented in maps as Mouza, J.L. and Daag, where as those on the riverside was left as fodder land. Those who measured the land used to draw the iron in perpendicular with the road. They formed parallelogram, fixed the four corners with one type of grass, calculated the land inside and recorded the same. After a few plots they used to keep a 15 feet gap. This was known as ‘Halot’ and was used for taking the plough and cows inside. The authorities (British East India Company up to 1757 and then the British Government) used to rent out large chunk of land to affluent men, known as Zaminders on the basis of yearly taxes. Then the Zaminders used to fix taxes as per their own considerations.
Fig.- 02: SETTLEMENT PATTERN AFTER OWNERSHIP ON WAS GIVEN ON LAND IN 1950
DEVELOPMENT OF LATERAL VILLAGE :
(Ref. Fig. No. 03) : The country got independence as province East Pakistan of the country, Pakistan in 1947. With this the peasants could understand that in future they would become the owners of the land they used to plough on the basis of yearly contract. The farmers later achieved the ownership on land under Section 54. At this stage they started shifting their houses from the ‘village’ to their own plots (Daag(s)). Thus, for the first time in the history of this land the “agglomerated village” started to take the form of a “linear village”. The rectangles shown inside the Daag represent the land for single or multiple family houses, some of which consisted of pond, granary, paddy-stalk silo, cow shed etc. The people used halots for movement. In addition they created pedestrian walkways along the shortest routes in between houses.
The decade 1960-’70 was the decade of green revolution, when huge sum of money was spent for increasing agro-production. Taking this scope major sections of the pedestrian walkways were raised. At this stage some of the houses were shifted near the roads to take the scope of obvious advantages. The previous ‘agglomerated village’ still remained as the abode of the landless poor people.
Fig.-03: SETTLEMENT PATTERN AS OF NOW
INDEPENDENT RURAL HOUSE :
A traditional rural house complete with ponds, multiple houses arranged common courtyard, independent kitchens, structures for animals, fuel store, silo, guest house etc. has been shown in Fig. 04. While the living house and kitchen are meant for independent families, those like ponds, animal-shed, fuel store, silo, guest house etc. are commonly owned.
Fig.-04: A TRADITIONAL RURAL HOUSE
LAND AROUND HOUSES :
We have seen what happened along a river bank. Let us now have a peep at what happened at places away from the riverbank. In this riverine country land in fact stretches in between rivers or canals. The rivers carry silt and sand that at times overflow and help to fill the low land. Since sand is heavier, it deposits near the river bank. The fine silt deposits at faraway places. Thus, the river bank is seen to have raised, where as faraway places remain low. The extremely low placed remain inundated throughout the year. When those are extremely large in size, those are called “Beel”, where as small water bodies are known as ponds. The land that remains under water in the rainy season is ideal for rice cultivation. The farmers who cultivate the land with bullock ploughs need to stay very near to the land. That is why, even inside the vast open field we find habitations within a distance of maximum 2 Kilometers. However, whenever people construct houses in the low-paddy field they need to dug ponds both for eater and for raising the land. For security most of them construct some sort of “joint house”, where they share some common items like pond, guest accommodation, toilet etc. Thus the new scenario of rural habitation is, lateral houses running on both sides of the major roads, leaving vast open paddy fields in between, and sparse development of single or joint house inside the vast open land.
PLANTATION OF TREES :
When houses are constructed on the side of the road, people plant trees along the roadside in order to create natural privacy from that side. For the same reason they plant trees on both sides. On the rear side of the house they plant plenty of trees, which serve as supplemental income. In addition to ensuring privacy, the trees help to save their structures from strong wind. When they construct independent houses inside the paddy field, plantation of trees on all sides becomes essential for the purpose of privacy and resisting strong wind.
In the rural areas various types of trees are planted with various objectives. Some of those are the following :
INSIDE THE HOUSE :
(a) Demarcation : Palm, coconut, betel nut etc. having straight stem are used at the boundaries in order to act to act as property demarcation. At time thorny trees like date-palm are used at the boundary.
(b) Safety : Large trees like rain-tree, mango, jackfruit etc. are planted around the structures in order to protect those from strong wind.
(c) Beauty and rituals : (i) Trees and plants having nice leaves (Pata-bahar) and flowers with beauty and smell are planted in the front part of the house for the purpose of beautification. (ii) Flower bearing trees are also planted organized gardens to supply flowers. Hindus need flower for religious rituals.
(d) Nutrition : (i) Fruit-bearing trees (Mango, jackfruit, apple etc.) are planted near the house to supply nutrition to the inmates. (ii) Vegetables : A kitchen garden growing vegetables meet some of the needs of the inmates.
(e) Income-generation : Trees, bearing income generating fruits are planted in organized gardens for the purpose of income generation. Banana, cocoanut, betel nut, guava, pineapple etc. fall in this group. Also trees with timber-value are planted at various suitable locations.
IN THE VILLAGE :
Palm and date palm trees are seen to grow in the open paddy field. Also trees with less of fruit and timber value are found to grow in uncared land, because of probable vandalism. At present the relevant department of the government is after planting trees in an organized way along the road side and vacant land under the banner of “Social forestry”.
The seeds carried by river water helps to create thick growth of trees along the water line. In the Sundarbans, trees and shrubs suitable for growing in brackish water and capable of living in submerged water grow in abundance.
CONCLUSION :
Above we have seen that poor farmers who used to plough land owned by the landlords started living in agglomerated village in the fodder land, i.e. grass land for the cows. Then, after they got right over the land they cultivated they constructed independent houses on independent plots. After 1960, the tube wells eliminated the need for ponds. So, the independent and scattered houses concentrated on the two sides of long roads and initiated the new type of village, the lateral village. The previous agglomerated village, however, remained in existence as abode of the poor, landless people and dependent laborers. In the meantime, some farmers were in need of staying inside wide paddy fields in order to cut-short the distance of working place. So, they erected small or large joint-family house.
(Ref : Paper : Traditional Architecture And Its Application In Urban Area Focusing On Khulna City. Bijon B. Sarma, in Report of the TECHNICAL CONFERENCE ON TROPICAL URBAN CLIMATES (28 March-2nd April, Dhaka, Bangladesh) WCASP -30. WMO/TD no. 647, WORLD METEOROLOGICAL ORGANIZATION 1994).
PROF. BIJON B. SARMA, HEAD ARCHITECTURE DISCIPLINE, KHULNA UNIVERSITY, KHULNA
I would like the students to know how rural habitation grew. Such rural habitations later changed to Urban habitation when non-agricultural economy superseded the agricultural economy. Prof. Bijon B. Sarma
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