A beel (Bengali language and Assamese: বিল) is a lake-like wetland with static water as opposed to moving water in rivers and canals - typically called in Bengali, in the Ganges - Brahmaputra flood plains of Bangladesh, and the states of West Bengal and Assam. The term owes its origins to the word of the same pronunciation meaning "pond" and "lake" in the Bengali language and Assamese languages.
Formation
Typically, beels are formed by inundation of low-lying lands during
, where some water gets trapped even after flood waters recede back from the
. Beels may also be caused by filling up of low-lying areas during
, especially during the
monsoon season.
There are different causes for the formation of beels. A string of beels is indicative of there being the remains of a great river that deserted its channel, moving to a new one elsewhere.
Haor, Baor
In north eastern Bangladesh there are large water bodies called
. A haor is a bowl shaped depression which is flooded every year during
monsoon. Throughout the rainy season a haor is such a vast stretch of turbulent water that it is thought of as a sea, within which the villages appear as islands. It remains under water for seven months of the year. During the dry season water drains out leaving small shallow lakes exposing rich soil extensively cultivated for rice.
In greater
Comilla District, Faridpur,
Dhaka and
Pabna District districts the beel is sometimes referred to as baor.
Location of important beels
Bangladesh
Bangladesh has thousands of beels, with the best-known being
Chalan Beel,
Beel Dakatia, Gopalganj-Khulna Beel, Meda Beel, Aila beel, Dekhar beel, Kuri beel, Erali beel and Arial Beel.
[Abdul Wahab Akonda, BANGLADESH , International Water Management Institute; Retrieved: 2007-12-04] In the central part
Bangladesh, important beels are Katla, Chatal, Nagarkanda, and Chanda. Most of the large beels have shrunk a great deal in recent decades. Regionwise, in the northwest of Bangladesh some of the larger beels are Bara Beel in Pirganj, Tagrai Beel in Kurigram, Lunipukur in
Rangpur District, Bara Mirzapur Beel in
Narail District and Keshpathar in
Bogra District. The old river course of
Atrai River has beels. In the southern region of Bangladesh, important beels are Boyra,
Beel Dakatia, Bara, Kola, Patla, Chatal and Srirampur.
India
Assam
In
Assam,
Deepor Beel is a permanent, freshwater lake, in a former channel of the Brahmaputra River, to the south of the main river south-west of
Guwahati. It has great biological and environmental importance besides being the only major storm water storage basin for the Guwahati city. The beel is endowed with rich floral and faunal diversity. In addition to huge congregation of residential water birds, the Deepor ecosystem harbours large number of migratory waterfowl each year. Deepor Beel has been designated as a Ramsar site in November 2002.
Related concepts
