Barind Tract

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Barind Tract (alternately called the Varendra Tract in English and Varendra Bhumi in Bengali) is the largest Pleistocene era pysiographic unit in Bangladesh and the Bengal Basin. It covers most of Dinajpur, Rangpur, Pabna, Rajshahi, Bogra, and Joypurhat districts of Rajshahi Division. It is fragmented, being made up of several separate sections in the northeastern part of the country, covering a total area of approximately 7,770 sq km of mostly old alluvium. On the eastern edge of the tract is a lower fault escarpment. Through the fault troughs run the little Jamuna, Atrai and Lower Punarbhaba rivers. To the west, the main area is tilted up, some of it being more than 15 m higher than the rest of the tract and the adjoining Mahananda River floodplain. To the east this area is tilted downwards, passing under the Atrai River basin.^[1] The climate of the tract differs from that of much of India, in that more extreme temperature variations (ranging from 45 degrees Celsius down to five degrees Celsius) are encountered there. It is divided into three units: The Recent Alluvial Fan, the Barind Pleistocene, and the Recent Floodplain. These are divided by long, narrow bands of recent alluvium.^[2]