Birishiri, Netrokona, Bangladesh
14.01.12
As our country (Bangladesh) is a beauty of nature herself, we have a lot of places here and there to prove that if anyone doubt. Among them, the beauty of Birishiri of Durgapur thana under Netrokona district is one. It stands in both side of river Shomeshwory. The color of the water changes in place to place. During winter season the bank of the river seems to a large desert beside the bluish water of the river.
History says that the world’s first ‘Garo’ community of that region went to Dhaka in the earlier of 20th century (1909) to take the Christian religion and the missionaries of that time came at Birishiri, Durgapur to help the community in every way. Still there are many symbols of missionaries like as the over 100 year’s old trees and the beautiful church on the hill besides the river.
Local political leaders are working for the place to make it a better tourism spot by improving the condition of the roads and transportation. Now it’s so much hard labouring to go there by bus or any human hauler. Traditional Bengali foods are available here, but the number of restaurants is not much and the environments of the current restaurants are also not so better for any foreign tourist. Residential hotels and motels are available at a number and also a rest house of Bangladesh water development board.
We went there during the winter and it was January ’12. we were seven friends and started our journey from Mohakhali bus terminal. There are very few direct bus services to Durgapur. We reached there after having a nonpleasant journey of 6 hours and reside at a motel named Shorna Guest house. It was very nice for us to have the terrace rooms.
We started our tour from motel in the early morning. We crossed the river Shomeshwory by boat rated tk 2 per person. After crossing the river there are motorbikes and rickshaw available for the rest journey and sightseeing. We took the rickshaw for a slow motion show in the sights. The poor Bangladesh stared to show it’s glorious natural beauty thereafter till we reached the so-called blue and green water ponds. Basically, there was a chemical factory long time ago and the project was to collect limestone and white soils from the hills. After the project was banned from there, the water and the soil chemical react with each other to form the present color of water. (These also happened in a same project at Boschora of Sunamgonj besides Meghalaya of India. I’ve also visited there last year.) The pictures can say more about the beauties of these two ponds. There are two underground passages which were built during the liberation war 1971 by the Pakistanis (said by the local tenant) and now closed. After there we started our journey towards the BGB (Boarder Guards of Bangladesh) camp at Bijoypur. From here a nice view of the river and mountains of India and Bangladesh can be enjoyed very pleasantly. On the way to BGB camp we visited a foods village at Komlakanda established by the local MP (Member of the Parliament).
Another beauty of Birishiri is the catholic church at Komlakanda. Now it is supervised by the Garo’s who were devoted to take the Christian religion in the 1909 from here. The whole missionary is well organized and open for the visitors. It’s situated beside Shomeshwory river and on the mountains. The taste of Bengali village life can be tasted here while traveling the whole area with the beauties. Still there are a lot of sufferings that a tourist can suffer like not having available tour guide to supply adequate information, lack of drinking water as well as food, the roads are so much inherent and for this it’s so uncomfortable often. We took sufficient drinking water, some dry foods and pre-loaded GPS maps on our mobile devices. But the government can build this place a good tourism spot because it’s not so far from the capital, the only main shortcoming is the transportation & communication.
For the tour;
- Bus from Mohakhali bus terminal to durgapur (rent tk 400/person)
Or by train/bus to Mymensingh and then to Durgapur by bus or Kuinya by train.
- Motel fare varies from tk 500 to tk 1000 per room/night
- Rickshaw may cost tk 300 to tk 400 for whole day long
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