Vitavas Srivihok, the Thai ambassador to Laos, says Thailand will urge Laos and Vietnam to co-operate on eco-tourism. Both Route 8 and Route 12 have good potential for eco-tourism, he adds, given the number of caves, waterfalls and other attractive features along the way.

Goods transported to Vietnam via Laos on Routes 8 and 12 currently face problems because the Laotian Customs Department treats them as imported goods destined for re-export, thereby forcing truckers to pay higher duties, said a transport industry source.

Goods transported via Route 9 are treated differently, as it has a special status in the Cross Border Transport Agreement and is thus eligible for lower duties.

Route 8 links Nakhon Phanom in Thailand with Thakhek and Khammouane in Laos. It thenlinks to Route 12 in Laos which continues to Dong Hoi on the central Vietnam coast.  Route 9, roughly parallel but farther south, links Mukdahan in Thailand via Savannakhet, Laos to Danang.

Vitavas said he hopes that when the third Thai-Lao Bridge across the Mekong River opens in November 2011, linking Nakhon Phanom and Khammouane, it will help facilitate more tourism and trade on this route.

The Thai Ambassador acknowledges that Laos doesn’t want to be treated as a corridor for trade between Vietnam and Thailand, and that’s a good reason for it to develop its potential for tourism on Routes 8 and 12.

The weakness of Vietnam on the two routes is that its tourist spots are not connected to each other, he said.

Laos is the best location for creating a link with four countries: Thailand, Burma, China, and Vietnam. “Travelling through Laos will be the shortest way. If the roads in Laos can be connected, we can easily travel to all five countries in this region,” Vitavas told the Bangkok Post. Of the total 2 million visitors to Laos last year, 1.3 million were Thais.

Vitavas urges the Greater Mekong Subregion members – Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and southern China – to co-operate on tourism more seriously. “Better joint promotion of tourism is a good way to help alleviate poverty and meets foreign tourists wish to visit many Asian countries at one time to save costs,” he adds.

“There are few countries in the world that jointly promote regional tourism, and they are in Europe, the Caribbean countries and Pacific island countries,” says Vitavas. To promote tourism in the region, there should be a single visa and shared infrastructure, he adds.

Vitavas argues that the strategy for tourism promotion should include a common market with three to five countries treated as one destination. As well, it will be important to develop the human resources, encourage cross-border facilitation, private-sector participation and tourism-related infrastructure.

The mostly indigenous ethnic Kuoy residents of Romchek village in northeast Preah Vihear province are to receive a share of almost $20,000 in grant money from the Global Environment Facility”s (GEF) Small Grants Programme, according to a press release issued today by UNDP.

They will invest the money in environmentally sensitive visitor sites in the pristine forestland around the Choam Prei lake.

The lake, used by the Kuoy as a cattle-grazing site and as a water and food source, was returned to the 213 families of Romchek from private ownership this year after a process that involved the local, provincial and central Government.

A plan to develop the 70-acre lake into a site for hosting tourists was approved in June by GEF”s Small Grants Programme.

“The site has a lot of potential for the entire village,” said Ly Setha, a project officer for a provincial civil society organization, Ponlok Khmer, that will channel funds from the small grant into eco-tourism projects for the area.

“Villagers hope there will be a spill-over from the tourists coming every year that will allow them to earn income by selling local products, and that will help them improve their livelihoods,” said Mr. Setha.

The two-year project aims to accommodate tourists to carry out conservation-related research, or to experience the wild animals and plant life around the lake. Activities include production of publicity material, building campsites, and training community members to become tour guides.

Ponlok Khmer was already running a programme that employed villagers to repair the lake”s drainage and water level and to improve it as a fish spawning ground.

Before January, the lake had been part of a fish-farming enterprise run by the family of a local entrepreneur, who was given permission by a village chief in 1998 to use the area for private business.

Villagers accused him of blocking public access to Choam Prei. They collected 86 thumbprints to file a petition through their local government office.

The head of Romney commune took up the case in 2008 and raised its profile through a nationwide local government-association. The association, the National League of Commune/Sangkat, receives technical and financial support from UNDP as part of a project for democratic reforms at the local level.

Nowadays, much “adventure travel” is given a deliberately green tinge. Organisations like Earthwatch send young (and increasingly frequently old) people to the four corners of the earth to study and protect endangered wildlife of every sort and, yes, to enjoy themselves in doing so.

But just how realistic is it to imagine that increasing numbers of people can visit the wild places of the earth, and the animals, trees and plants that live there, without destroying them? Oscar Wilde famously wrote that “each man kills the thing he loves”. Have we reached, or are we approaching, the limits of sustainable wildlife tourism? Should there be a strict rationing of visitors in sensitive areas? Should “return visits” be banned? Should there be total no-go zones?

There are no easy answers to such questions, but it is important that they should be asked. Take the Galapagos Islands, for example. Historically, British visitors have formed the second largest group. Even with the recession, there were still 14,000 British visitors last year.

When I first went to the Galapagos, 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, in 2006, I did ask myself whether it was altogether appropriate to visit, but the sheer excitement of being offered a bite at this incredible cherry won the day.

During that first trip to the archipelago, I spent 10 days on board a 16-berth schooner, sailing from island to island. For me, as for most visitors, the love affair began as soon as I stepped off the aircraft. The astonishing thing about the Galapagos is that you actually do get to see what you hope to see. If you are lucky, you will come across most of the famous birds that intrigued Charles Darwin when he landed there 175 years ago next month. You will see blue-footed boobies and frigatebirds, Galapagos hawks and flightless cormorants. You may swim and snorkel among huge Pacific Green Turtles and white-tipped reef sharks. You will meet giant tortoises well over 100 years old and still going strong.

This relatively benevolent relationship between man and nature didn’t always exist. Vast depredations of Galapagos wildlife occurred in previous centuries. Tortoises were captured in their thousands by passing ships. The surrounding oceans were virtually emptied of whales. It is only really since 1959 when the Galapagos was established as a national park and, subsequently, as a World Heritage Site, that a proper framework has been created for safeguarding this paradise. But since then numbers of human residents and visitors have boomed.

When I first visited, some 500 cruise ships were already offering the Galapagos as a destination and some of those ships would be carrying hundreds of passengers. Nor was the problem confined to people on boats. It might not yet have been a backpacker’s dream, but when I walked through the main town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, with its agencies offering “Galapagos Adventure Tours”, I could see the potential for disaster. An explosion of short-stay visitors might overwhelm the capacity of the authorities to manage. It would also dramatically increase the risk of alien species being introduced.

Even if the authorities had the knowledge and the means to control mass-tourism, would they have the political will? In the early years of the new millennium, the islands had seen a high rate of immigration from the Ecuadorean mainland, and as many as 30,000 people now lived there – most of them involved in the tourist industry. Pressures to increase the ceiling on the number of tourists permitted to visit the islands (then about 120,000) were already being felt.

That initial trip to the Galapagos coincided with the final throes of an Ecuadorian national election campaign. I was in Puerto Ayora, for the eve-of-poll rallies. Pickup trucks, garlanded with slogans, hooted up and down the streets and boats sounded their horns in the marina. The slogans were for jobs, better sewerage, and support for local fishermen. I didn’t hear anyone on the islands calling for the authority of the national park to be strengthened and expanded. Or, if they did, I missed it. Yet, without strong political backing at every level, I had serious doubts whether the Galapagos miracle could long survive.

But the island’s uniqueness draws visitors back again and again, myself included. I returned to the Galapagos this summer, keen to see it with fresh eyes after being asked to join the Galapagos Conservation Trust as chairman and moderator. My wife and I travelled on board the MV Eclipse, which carries a maximum of 48 passengers. Crucially, from our point of view, there were the three Ecuadorian naturalists on board: Javier, Tommy and Daniel. Day after day, they escorted us to the different sites on land. If we were snorkelling, they led the way, using hand gestures to point to giant starfish, slow-cruising sea-turtles, and marine iguanas plucking seaweed from the rocks, or Galapagos penguins flashing past at speed in search of their prey.

In the evening, as we sat in the lecture room, they elaborated on key themes. “The Galapagos” Javier, told us, “is one of the most important nesting areas for the Pacific Green turtle.” As we disembarked, he warned us to stay clear of the areas of the beach above high-water mark where the turtles had already laid their eggs. “There are five important marine turtle nesting sites in the Galapagos,” he explained.

For me, this was a profoundly emotional moment. For the last several years I have served as an ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme’s Convention on Migratory Species (CMS). Within the framework of the CMS, the countries which border the Indian Ocean and the South-east Asia region have already reached an agreement to protect all species of marine turtle. Now the CMS and other bodies are considering what measures can be taken to protect marine turtles in the Eastern Pacific, many of whose populations are under threat. It is clear that the Galapagos, as a key breeding location for marine turtles, will play a vital part in any such agreement. Standing there on the critically important Bachas beach, I truly felt that I was in on the ground floor.

But it’s the giant tortoises that are perhaps the most famous of all the Galapagos wildlife. Today it is estimated that the islands’ giant tortoise population stands at about 15,000 individuals divided into 11 sub-species. The largest population is on the volcano of Alcedo on Isabela Island.

How are the giant tortoises faring after the depredations of earlier centuries, when whalers, pirates and sailors used to take giant tortoises on board to provide fresh meat and oil? Darwin notes that the crew of the HMS Beagle collected between 600 and 800 tortoises in just a few weeks. The introduction of goats and rats hastened the process of decline.

If you want a poignant reminder, go and visit “Lonesome George” in the grounds of the Charles Darwin Research Centre just outside Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. The tortoise given this nickname, who could be more than 80 years old, is the last of his subspecies, the Pinta Tortoise. While his plight is a poignant reminder of what we risk losing, the giant tortoise breeding programme has been very successful in bringing other subspecies back from the brink.

But the “elephant in the living room” – tourism – remains. On my first visit, the idea of huge people-carriers anchoring off the islands and disgorging boat-loads of passengers had sent shivers down the spine of conservationists around the world. Nor was it clear what benefit to the local economy such visitations would bring. One of the great advantages of a small-scale Galapagos cruise is that a well-equipped vessel carries its own expert guides. And a well-arranged itinerary provides plenty of time for those experts to brief interested passengers on the threats and challenges the islands face. On my second visit, it was Tommy who summarised for us the current situation. He gave us the good news first.

Thanks to a moratorium inspired – in part at least – by a campaign led by the Galapagos Conservation Trust, the menace of large cruise ships has, at least for the time being, disappeared. But what about the explosive growth of other kinds of tourism? In 1991 tourists had numbered 41,000. Annual visitors now number around 170,000.

“Shipborne tourists are not a major threat to the visitor sites. These are relatively well managed,” Tommy explained. “The National Park authorities are in strict control of the number of visitors and of their itineraries.”

He went on to point out that new guidelines were being introduced. Whereas, in the past, a seven-day circuit of visitor sites, largely confined to the inner islands, had been the norm, in the future it would become the exception. Instead of returning again and again to the same limited number of sites, the tourist vessels would have to range further afield, calling at sites so far infrequently visited.

“The biggest challenge now” Tommy said “is the rapid increase in the number of people coming to Galapagos for reasons other than a wildlife cruise. Whether they are here for two days to cross it off a list of must-see sites, or simply to sit in the sun, their number and their activity is much harder to control.” He added that the risk of invasive species remains the biggest threat. The Galapagos islands now have 748 species of introduced plants, outnumbering that approximately 500 species of native plant. “However tough your quarantine measures, there is always a danger.”

As Tommy continued his lecture that evening I couldn’t help thinking about those amazing giant tortoises, which so attracted Darwin’s interest when he visited the Galapagos 175 years ago. How ironic, how banal, it would be, I thought, if the rampant spread of blackberry bushes (now considered to be one of the most serious threats as far as invasive species are concerned) finally caused the demise of the giant tortoise! Clearing the invasive plants is one of the Galapagos Conservation Trust’s most important projects. And it wasn’t just a matter of ripping the offending plants out. “Most invasive plant species” explains Toni Darton, the chief executive of the trust, “come via people’s gardens. That’s why we are supporting a project to encourage residents to swap their introduced choices for native Galapagos species.”

If I am lucky enough to make a third visit to the Galapagos before I am borne away on the back of a giant sea-turtle I hope to be able to report more good news. The Galapagos, it seems to me, is a kind of test case for managing other vulnerable sites of natural beauty, though few perhaps will rival the Enchanted Isles in terms of their scientific, natural and environmental interest.

I know that many people have been dismayed that Unesco has recently removed the Galapagos Islands from the “most threatened” list of World Heritage sites (in 2007, Unesco mentioned tourism as one of the main threats to the Galapagos ecosystem); but, looked at another way, this is really good news, not bad. It means that solid progress has been made, and that more progress can be expected in the future. Tourism will be an inevitable part of the Galapagos’s future but, I hope, it can evolve to a point beyond where we are now, and each visitor can nurture the land they love without destroying it.

When Georg Schluender, a 1987 graduate of Harbor Springs High School, launched a career in ecotourism, he did what most others wish they could do – turn decades of adventure into a full-time job.

It all began in high school with an exciting and new sport (at the time) – mountain biking – and his work as an assistant water-ski instructor at Spray Ski School on Crooked Lake.

Within two years of graduating, Schluender had already taken this experience and launched Mountains Only, LLC, a silent sports training business, which focuses on sports that do not disturb others or negatively affect the environment.

But, he said, the real journey began in 1990, when he headed across the country to attend the Evergreen State College in Washington and, shortly thereafter, move to the San Juan Islands, located between Seattle and Vancouver.

Soon after settling in the islands, Schluender met Mark Lewis, founder of Sea Quest Expeditions, college professor, and author of “Birding in the San Juan Islands”.

“He was also from Michigan,” Schluender said. “He took me under his wing and took my passion for instructing outdoor recreation to a new level of natural history interpretation and marine mammal interactions.”

Using his new knowledge, Schluender began leading sea kayaking tours through Sea Quest Expeditions, in the midst of orca pods, sea lions, seal, porpoise, whale, and dog sharks.

During the winters, he instructed snowboarding on Mt. Baker, building again on his passions, and spent fall mountain biking in Utah, in both Summit County and Moab, until 1999.

After working in San Juan for a few years, Schluender attempted to enter the corporate world by taking a job at Apple Inc. in the Pacific Northwest. The avid outdoorsmen soon itched for more adventure, though, and chose to leave his new post in 1997 and migrate again, this time between the Barrier Islands of the southeast and the San Juan Islands in the spring and summer.

“I decided to return to guiding and instructing because of how fulfilling it is to see people lose their mainstream persona and realize how grand life is outside of the ego. More importantly, seeing the wonder and interest in the way children see the world makes it so worthwhile,” Schluender said.

In 2000, he returned to northern Michigan briefly to help with his family’s business, JW Filmore’s restaurant.

“I was not cut out for it,” Schluender said. “I obtained my real estate license in Marquette, but was interested in guiding again. I took up guiding for various outfitters in the upper peninsula and northern Michigan, but was dissatisfied with the quality and skill level of the sea kayaking provider’s.”

Believing the providers lacked natural history knowledge of the ecosystem or had “inflated ego’s with limited skills,” Schluender was not impressed. He chose instead to create the position of Director of Silent Sports at Shanty Creek Resorts in 2006.

It was an uphill battle, he admitted, and within two years, all upper management had left. He decided it was time to resurrect Mountains Only, LLC, – now known as Michigan Outdoor Silent Sport Tourism – which had fizzled through the years.

At Mountains Only, he began guiding and developing target marketing for silent sports and various seasonal outfitters and resorts.

“Because of the unique aspects of silent sport marketing, the media, Pure Michigan, various cable television shows, and PBS asked me to assist in travel adventures,” he said.

Schluender appeared on several episodes of “Destination Michigan”, a television series broadcasted by PBS last winter.

Last fall, House Representative Edward Clemente invited Schluender to Lansing to speak on silent sports marketing and ecotourism as a part of his Quality of Life Through a New Economy Initiative.

Schluender said the visit was very well-received, and it facilitated his career in consulting on ecotourism marketing and most recently led him to his position of Northeast Michigan Council of Government’s (NEMCOG) Director of Ecotourism.

Today, Schluender lives in Traverse City, consulting and developing marketing for resorts in the Great Lakes Region.

Despite his success, Schluender still finds time to return to his starting point, spending the last week of July of this summer in the San Juan Islands working with his mentor and best friend, Lewis, leading private guided tours as requested by clients.

“I continue to make myself available to assist training our intern guides as well, on points of natural history interpretation, marine mammal interaction, birding, tidal zone and current safety concerns and weather considerations along our tour routes,” he said.

“I am eager to be among the whales that gave seed to my career, lifestyle, and passion for silent sports,” Schluender said of the trip before he left.

The lush green Amazon is the world’s largest river basin that contains the most bountiful rain-forest on the planet. Including macaws, toucans, tyrant flycatchers, capybaras, tapir, sloths, squirrel monkeys, red howler monkeys, jaguars, caimans, anacondas, tarantulas, leaf-cutter ants, scarlet ibis and black skimmers, the Amazon rain-forest is home to a bewildering array of wildlife.

Don’t think the list gets over here, Amazon is such a large rain-forest and has such profusion of wildlife that it might get difficult for you to explore it and if you’re able to then there is a possibility that you won’t see the same sights twice. I’ll suggest you to take your camera along so that you are able to capture the cherishing moments.

Amazon rainforest is the world’s most beautiful and unspoiled places. It is dense, rich, tropical and brimming with life. It is host to some of the most remarkable and fascinating wildlife on earth. With about thousand species of fish and birds including hundreds of hummingbirds, about sixty reptile species one can easily make out the astounding biodiversity of the place.

Wouldn’t you call Nick Gordon fortunate enough to spend ten years of his life get close encounters with the abundant nature of Amazon rainforest? He came up with the astonishing series of magical images. ‘A photographer’s incredible journey’ will be published next month by Evans Mitchell Books at £25. Here, in the picture gallery below I’m putting few pictures of the exciting species and I’m sure these will help you have the idea of Amazon’s biological richness.

1) possesses a new idea to create and/or improve sustainability initiatives,

2) has a positive impact,

3) takes a unique approach,

4) contributes to progress in sustainable tourism, and

5) provides useful information and examples from which others can learn.

So far, the organization has selected five finalists for the Individual Category—such as Santiago Dunn, Executive President of Ecoventura—and eleven in the Organization Category—including Basecamp Explorer, Intrepid Travel, and Playa Viva. To check out the nominees’ projects, visit the TIES’ Your Travel Choice Blog. Supporters as well as project stakeholders and members are encouraged to comment on the finalists until Monday, August 23, and comments may sway the final decision. The two winners (one individual, one organization) will be announced during the closing ceremony of the Ecotourism and Sustainable Tourism Conference on September 10. See who stands out the most when it comes to sustainability.

In the early twenty, this industry started its walking in Hazaribagh. According to the ministry of industry, there were only 30 tanneries owned by west Pakistani businessman in Hazaribagh during 1965. There are about 270 tanneries in the whole Bangladesh. The significant portions of the tanneries (90% of 270) are located in Hazaribagh, a very densely populated area in the megacity of Dhaka in Bangladesh. This industry is located in 25 hectares of land in Hazaribag. There is no denying that most of the urban-based industries in Bangladesh pollute environment. Of them, tanneries do the extreme damage. It has devastating effects on environmental factor like water, soil, air, plants, human beings and other ecological factors. Water in the river Buriganga is like more than poison that is black in color. The physical look and smell of the area is frightening and intolerable.

In a survey of UN Food and Agriculture Organization, it has been identified that more than 7.70 million liter liquid waste and 88 MT solid wastes are produced by this industry everyday only by the tanneries located in Hazaribagh. So think, if these wastes are thrown to the river every day, what will happen to its aquatic plants? Many chemical like sodium sulfide, sodium metabisulfite, sulfuric acid, basic chromium sulfate, acid dyes and formic acid that are very detrimental to the environment, are mixed into the water and soil. The liquid waste causes immense harm to the fish and other living spices in the water. The situation of the environment gets worsened during the rainy season. Each and every business (as per law of labor) should provide the safety of their employee. But the workers who use these chemicals do not have any protective masks and training for using it. They regularly inhale the poisonous and dying agents. That’s why most of them are losing their longevity and are being affected by many incurable and dreadful diseases like skin cancer, bronchitis, agama, high blood pressure, dermatitis, skin lesion etc. Many of them have lost their fingers to run the machine and many workers have almost lost their sight to use the poisonous gas in the process.

The polluted air often causes diarrhea, stomach problem and nausea when it goes into human body. Chemical analysis suggests that tannery wastes are characterized by strong color, high biochemical oxygen demand, high PH and high dissolved salts. Disposal of these wastes into water course or onto land, with or without prior sedimentation, creates a great problem in the environment in the vicinity. During the dry season the waste water is flushed out into the river causing pollution of the river water and affecting the aquatic flora and fauna further. The dumping of the solid wastes is seriously affecting the soil and plants, besides vitiating the air, groundwater and human health. Talking to several people of Hazaribagh, I have gathered a terrific experience that they use the river water for domestic purposes in the dry season when there is a lack of water. As a result, they are also facing food poisoning. Above all, the total environment of this Hazaribagh area is no more suitable for healthy living. Rather, the basic elements of the environment are almost ruined.

The Dhaka city dwellers want to get rid of this unhygienic ecology. If this situation goes on, Dhaka will soon be a rejected city. Although our government has taken an initiative to relocation of tannery industry from the Bangladesh capital city’s Hazaribagh to suburban Savar, it is being delayed for years since the government is yet to set up a common effluent treatment plant (CETP) at the new site. The cost of shifting and the unwillingness of the owner and the mortgage bank are the basic drawbacks for shifting. Besides a lot of families are now dependent on this industry. It is difficult for them to be shifted there. We all expect improve leather processing technologies that will cause least pollution because nobody want to breathe in the poisoned air. So the government should take some pragmatic steps so that environment is saved to save human beings.

There are just 700 of the animals left on the planet, all of them living in the volcanic mountains spanning Rwanda, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Decades of conflict in the region, along with poaching and human encroachment on their habitat have threatened their very survival.

But money from ‘gorilla tourism’ has helped Rwanda reverse the trend of the shrinking population, with a small increase in mountain gorillas over the past five years.

The money is funding work to protect their forest habitat and anti-poaching patrols.

“We need the visitors because it is their money that helps to save the gorillas,” said gorilla guide Kwizera Diogene.

One of the many women employed to make souvenirs for gorilla tourists

Rwanda is successfully conducting a delicate balancing act – restricting the number of visitors to ensure the gorillas are not disturbed but letting enough in to fund their protection.

Each group of gorillas is visited for just one hour a day by a maximum of eight tourists. Trips cost £300.

Sky News joined one of the treks, high up into the Volcano national park in the north east of Rwanda.

The gorillas are very curious and don’t seem to mind visitors

Deep in the forest we found a group of 20 silverbacks, with one huge male lounging on his side with a young gorilla clambering over him. He glanced at us, grunted, and then went back to munching a piece of tree bark.

Coming face to face with the gorillas is a remarkable experience.

In their eyes you sense some kind of recognition, and some of the young males were so curious that they wandered over to get a close look at us, brushing past our legs.

Sky’s Emma Hurd talking to two former gorilla poachers

“It was amazing to get so close,” said American tourist Carol Hart said. “It cost a lot of money but it was worth it.”

Gorilla tourism is worth £3m a year to Rwanda and has created thousands of jobs.

Even former poachers like Anastase gasaga now recognise the animals are worth more alive than dead.

“I make money helping the foreigners see the gorillas, so I don’t need to poach anymore,” he said.

The District of Mymensingh is situated between 24°02‘03″ and 25°25‘56″ north latitude and 89°39‘00″ and 91°15‘35″ east longitude. According to the latest report received (1971) from the director, Land Records and Survey, it comprises an area of 5,039.76 square miles (13,052.92 km²). Mymensingh city is situated within Mymensingh Upazilla which is a sub-district.

The city has no officially defined geographical limits. The actual city area is larger than the Municipal area. Since 1980s the city has expanded with fast urbanization. Mymensingh city is clearly marked by the old Brahmaputra river flowing along its north. Some other different ends of the city are marked respectively by the beginning of the Agricultural University campus, the Medical College, Army cantonment and, finally, Sultanabad, a township built for the followers of Aga Khan. A railway line connecting Dhaka with northern districts, built between 1885 and 1899,^[12] passes through the city and divides it into two sides.

Climate and weather

The climate of Mymensingh is moderate. However for proximity of the Himalayas, it feels much colder than Dhaka. The monsoon starts in May or June and continues till August. It rains heavily and sometimes for days and weeks. During the monsoon, the temperature varies between 15 and 20 degrees. The temperature falls below 15 °C (59 °F) in winter which is spread over December and January and may well include November and February. Highest temperature is felt during April-May period when the temperature may be as high as 40 degrees. High humidity causes huge sweating during this period. For Western travelers, the best time to visit is between November and February.

The fort complex is located in the northwestern part of Dhaka on the banks of the Buriganga River. Prince Muhammad Azam, son of Emperor Aurangzeb, began the construction while he was serving as the Viceroy of Bengal. Governor Nawab Shaista Khan continued the project after Prince Azam was recalled to assist his father in the war against the Marhattas. It is commonly believed that the premature death of his favorite daughter, Iran-Dukht, popularly known as Bibi Pari, caused the suspension of the project. She was betrothed to Prince Azam, and upon her death, Nawab Shaista considered it inauspicious to continue the project.

The rectangular fort encompasses an area of 1082′ x 800′. Only some gateways and a long fortification wall with semi-octagonal bastions on the south side and high defense walls running along the western side remain. The two monumental gateways at the southeast and northeast ends face each other at a distance of 800′.

The southeastern gateway is a majestic structure built in the Mughal style. It was intended to be three storeys, but the upper storey was never completed. The inner facade has a four-centered archway with deep plastered semi-octagonal alcoves on either side. Short octagonal minarets define edges. The outer facade also has a four-centered archway flanked with plastered semi-octagonal alcoves. Above each alcove there is an oriel window in two stages that is capped by an elegant cupola. The central archway leads to a square domed hall with guardrooms on either side.

It appears that the defensive walls were reinforced by an internal embankment of earth along the east portion of the southwest corner. It contains an underground room, which may have been used as a summerhouse. The entrance is under a half-dome, which is decorated with ornamental plaster-cut work.