Habiganj, Sylhet
A compact, rich hill forest on the Dhaka–Sylhet road, with marked trails, a canopy watchtower, hoolock gibbons and a Tripura village inside.
The Tripura village inside the park keeps its own language and customs. Visit only with your guide, and ask before taking photographs.
Satchari — ‘seven streams’ — is named after the small streams that run through its hills. Once part of a much larger forest, it was declared a national park in 2005 to protect one of the best remaining patches of hill forest in the country.
The park is small enough to explore on foot in a few hours, but it is full of life. Hoolock gibbons, Bangladesh’s only ape, call from the canopy in the mornings; capped langurs, macaques and many birds, including hornbills in some seasons, live here too. Tall old trees, climbers and bamboo line the trails.
A Tripura village lies inside the park, and tea gardens surround it, so a walk here shows the forest, its people and the tea country side by side.
Leave Habiganj town or your resort early to reach the gate soon after it opens.
Climb the watchtower, then walk a longer trail with a guide and listen for gibbons.
Eat in Chunarughat or Shaistaganj.
Visit the Liberation War memorial in the Teliapara tea estate nearby and walk among the tea bushes.
November to March for dry trails and easier wildlife watching; the monsoon is lush but muddy and full of leeches
From Habiganj town, about an hour by CNG or car via Shaistaganj and Chunarughat. The park gate is on the main road through the forest, so some Dhaka–Sylhet buses pass it; ask the conductor whether yours goes via Satchari.
On foot along the marked trails — a short walk of about half an hour, and longer ones of one to three hours. A watchtower near the start looks over the canopy.
