History & Background
Declared a national park in 1996, Lawachara protects a fragment of mixed evergreen rainforest that once covered much of northeastern Bangladesh, and is home to the country's largest remaining population of western hoolock gibbons alongside other primates, including capped langurs. The forest overlaps with land traditionally used by Khasi and Tripura indigenous communities, and a disused railway line still cuts directly through the park, a legacy of the colonial-era rail network built to serve the surrounding tea estates.