Bangladesh operates 17 national parks, 20 wildlife sanctuaries, and 2 marine protected areas under the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act of 2012, administered by the Bangladesh Forest Department within the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. The protected area system covers approximately 3,172 square kilometers, representing 2.1 percent of the country's total land area of 147,570 square kilometers. This network faces structural pressures from population density of 1,265 persons per square kilometer, agricultural encroachment, and infrastructure development across lowland deltaic terrain.
The Sundarbans mangrove forest constitutes the largest single protected ecosystem, designated as three wildlife sanctuaries totaling 1,397 square kilometers within the broader 6,017 square kilometer Bangladesh portion of the transboundary forest. The Sundarbans East, West, and South wildlife sanctuaries were established in 1996 under the Bangladesh Wildlife (Preservation) Order. UNESCO inscribed the Sundarbans as a World Heritage Site in 1997, recognizing the world's largest contiguous mangrove ecosystem at the confluence of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers. The forest supports 180 Royal Bengal tigers according to the 2018 camera trap survey conducted by the Forest Department and Wildteam, down from 440 estimated in 2004. Tiger density measurements recorded 3.69 tigers per 100 square kilometers in the Bangladesh Sundarbans compared to 11.7 per 100 square kilometers in the adjacent Indian portion, reflecting habitat quality differentials and prey availability. Salinity intrusion from Bay of Bengal tidal action reaches 30 kilometers inland during dry season months of December through April, creating brackish conditions that support 334 plant species including Heritiera fomes, locally called sundri, which provides the forest its name. Cyclone Sidr in November 2007 damaged 31 percent of the Sundarbans canopy, with recovery monitored through remote sensing by the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization showing 72 percent regeneration by 2015.
Lawachara National Park in Moulvibazar District of Sylhet Division encompasses 12.5 square kilometers of mixed evergreen forest designated in 1996. The park lies within the broader 2,740 square kilometer West Bhanugach Reserved Forest, one of four remaining semi-evergreen forest patches in Bangladesh concentrated in northeastern hill districts. Lawachara protects habitat for the Western Hoolock gibbon, with population surveys by the Bangladesh Forest Department and International Union for Conservation of Nature recording 62 individuals in 2012 across five family groups. This represents 20 percent of Bangladesh's total hoolock gibbon population, confined to forest fragments in Sylhet and Chittagong divisions. The park contains 167 bird species documented in surveys by the Bangladesh Bird Club, including the Oriental pied hornbill and seven species of woodpecker. Canopy height averages 25 meters with emergent trees reaching 40 meters, dominated by Dipterocarpus turbinatus and Artocarpus chaplasha. The Bangladesh Railway broad gauge line bisects the park, installed in 1942 during British administration, creating edge effects measured at 200 meters into forest interior. Co-management committees established in 2003 under the Nishorgo Support Project involve four Khasia indigenous communities totaling 187 families in patrol activities and ecotourism revenue sharing. Annual visitor numbers reached 24,000 in 2019 before pandemic disruption, generating 1.8 million taka in entry fees at 50 taka per domestic visitor and 500 taka per foreign national.
Satchari National Park covers 24.3 square kilometers adjacent to Lawachara in Habiganj District, designated in 2005. Forest structure matches Lawachara's mixed evergreen composition but contains higher bamboo density, with Melocanna baccifera covering 18 percent of understory area. Seven primate species inhabit Satchari including the northern pig-tailed macaque, recorded in 2010 surveys at 4.2 individuals per square kilometer. The critically endangered Phayre's langur population numbered 38 individuals in 2015 counts by the Creative Conservation Alliance, representing the only viable population in Bangladesh outside the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Stream density reaches 2.3 kilometers per square kilometer, feeding the Baulai River that forms the park's western boundary. These watercourses support 15 amphibian species including the Chinese edible frog and Indian bullfrog. Trail infrastructure includes 12 kilometers of unpaved paths maintained by Forest Department staff, with four observation towers constructed in 2008 reaching 15 meters height for canopy wildlife observation.
Himchari National Park occupies 17.3 square kilometers along the Cox's Bazar coast in Chattogram Division, established in 1980. The park extends from sea level to 350 meters elevation on the Teknaf Peninsula, containing tropical wet evergreen forest transitioning to littoral forest within 500 meters of the Bay of Bengal shoreline. Garjan trees, Dipterocarpus turbinatus, dominate slopes above 100 meters elevation, reaching 35 meters height with trunk diameters exceeding 1.5 meters. The Asian elephant population fluctuates between 12 and 18 individuals based on 2016-2019 camera trap data, representing a isolated subpopulation separated from the main Chittagong Hill Tracts elephant corridor by the Cox's Bazar-Teknaf highway constructed in 2005. This road creates a 7.5 meter wide barrier with daily traffic exceeding 8,000 vehicles during peak tourist season from November through February. Himchari waterfall descends 30 meters over sandstone bedrock 2 kilometers from park headquarters, flowing year-round with discharge varying from 0.8 cubic meters per second in April to 4.2 cubic meters per second during August monsoon peak. Beach frontage extends 3 kilometers where five species of sea turtle nest between October and March, with olive ridley turtles accounting for 78 percent of documented nests in 2018 surveys by the Marine Turtle Conservation Project.
Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary encompasses 116.2 square kilometers of the Teknaf Peninsula's southern extent, established in 1983 and expanded in 2010. The sanctuary borders Myanmar across the Naf River, forming part of a transboundary conservation landscape with Myanmar's Rakhine Yoma Elephant Range. Asian elephant movements between the two countries occur at four documented crossing points, tracked through GPS collar data collected between 2014 and 2017 showing individual elephants traversing up to 45 kilometers weekly. The Rohingya refugee crisis beginning August 2017 created direct impacts on 2,600 hectares of sanctuary forest, with satellite analysis by the UN Environment Programme documenting 4,000 hectares of tree cover loss in the broader Teknaf-Ukhia landscape between September 2017 and February 2018. Refugee settlements house approximately 900,000 individuals in areas immediately adjacent to sanctuary boundaries, generating daily firewood demand estimated at 1,560 tons by the Food and Agriculture Organization. Forest cover within the sanctuary declined from 89 percent in 2010 to 71 percent in 2020 according to remote sensing analysis by the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at Chittagong University.
Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittagong District covers 77.6 square kilometers designated in 1986, protecting hill forest between 60 and 350 meters elevation. The sanctuary contains the largest remaining population of Asian elephants in Bangladesh outside the Chittagong Hill Tracts, with 2017 census data recording 83 individuals across seven herds. Crop raiding incidents averaged 127 annually between 2015 and 2019, concentrated in 23 villages within 2 kilometers of sanctuary boundaries where elephant movements into agricultural lands peak during rice harvesting in November and December. The Forest Department operates four elephant response teams equipped with spotlight searchlights and firecrackers to deter nighttime crop raiding. Compensation payments for elephant damage totaled 4.7 million taka in 2019 distributed to 312 affected farmers at rates of 20 taka per kilogram for destroyed crops. Forest composition includes 73 tree species with Dipterocarpus costatus and Artocarpus chaplasha forming 40 percent of canopy structure. The sanctuary protects watershed functions for the Halda River, which flows along the eastern boundary and constitutes the only natural spawning ground for Indian major carps in Bangladesh, generating 40 tons of fertilized eggs collected annually by licensed fishers.
Madhupur National Park covers 84.