Muhuri River

Muhuri River (Bangla: মুহুরী Muhuri) one of the trans-boundary rivers of Bangladesh. The river takes its rise on the Lushai hills of Tripura in India and enters Bangladesh through Parshuram upazila of Feni district after flowing over the hilly regions of India. As such the river is wild in nature and often causes flash floods. At some places it demarcates the boundary between India and Bangladesh and falls into the Bay of Bengal after dividing the Feni and the Chittagong district.

Before 1975, the Indian government constructed an impermeable spur on the river to save the Belonia town of Tripura State from the erosion of the river. But afterwards it has been decided in a meeting of joint river commission that none of the countries can construct spur or groyen on the river. The islands or chars formed in the Muhuri river are partly controlled by India and partly by Bangladesh.The river is named after lone Famus Muhuri Family of Belonia

The Muhuri is not wide enough and it is only 150 to 200 metres wide. But the width increases towards the sea. The depth of the river is also very little and people can cross it on foot during the lean period. Close to the sea, the river is under tidal influence.

There is a closure dam on the river about 4 km upstream from the estuary for irrigation purpose and a 20-vent regulator has also been constructed. During high tide, the dam along with the regulator controls the influx of saline water.

This river is also a line of contention between the two neighbouring countries, India and Bangladesh. The border of the two nation (India-Bangladesh) according to Indira - Mujib treaty is defined as the mid of the river. There is a huge and advanced dam in one side of it (this part belongs to India, Belonia- Bankar area). Thus in the rainy seasons the flood water cannot cause much disaster in this portion, whereas most of the times it causes a menace in the lower areas. In course of time the river engulfed a huge area of Bangladesh provience, increasing the boundary of Indian part. This is the main reason of border dispute.

§ This river also stands for peace among the two nations. It stands for the harmony and also the history of help and support the Indian citizens offered during the Bangladesh crisis (with Pakistan). Now also the people of both side maintains good cordial relationships, and visit each other often, irrespective of what the leaders think.

See also