Khulna

About Khulna

Khulna stretches from the outskirts of Jashore in the north to the Sundarbans and the Bay of Bengal in the south. Jashore and Narail lie to the north, Bagerhat to the east and Satkhira to the west. The Rupsha, Bhairab, Pasur, Shibsa, Kobadak and Arpangashia rivers carry the tide through the district, and the southern upazilas of Dacope and Koyra are islands of embanked farmland facing the mangrove forest.

Khulna city, on the west bank of the Rupsha and Bhairab, is the headquarters of the division and one of the largest cities in Bangladesh. It grew as a river port and industrial town, with jute mills, a shipyard and the newsprint mill at Khalishpur, and today it is home to Khulna University and KUET, the region’s engineering university.

The south of the district lives with salt water. Shrimp and crab ghers cover much of Paikgachha, Dacope and Koyra, and the coast has been hit repeatedly by cyclones such as Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009, which left a long legacy of salinity and broken embankments.

History

A widely told story links the name to Khullaneshwari, a goddess whose shrine is associated with the medieval tale of the merchant Dhanapati and his wife Khullana. In the fifteenth century Khan Jahan Ali’s settlers cleared and settled parts of the area. Under the British, Khulna was made a subdivision of Jashore in 1842 — often cited as the first in Bengal — and became a separate district in 1882. The chemist and educationist Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray was born at Raruli in Paikgachha, and Rabindranath Tagore’s ancestral village Pithabhog and his wife Mrinalini Devi’s family home at Dakshindihi are both in the district.

Khulna industrialised quickly after 1947, when Khalishpur and the Rupsha bank filled with jute, paper and engineering works. In 1971 Khulna saw one of the bloodiest massacres of the war at Gallamari, and the battle of Shiromoni in mid-December was among the last major engagements before the city was freed.

Economy and livelihoods

Khulna is the centre of Bangladesh’s shrimp industry. Bagda shrimp from the saline south and golda prawns from Dumuria and Phultala feed processing plants along the Rupsha, which freeze and export white fish, shrimp and crabs. Dumuria is also a major vegetable and fish belt. Many state-owned jute mills closed in 2020, but private jute, food processing, power plants and Khulna Shipyard remain, and Mongla port just across the border in Bagerhat drives trade and logistics. The Sundarbans provide honey, fish, crabs and golpata palm leaf under seasonal permits.

Food, culture and festivals

The signature taste of Khulna is chui jhal, the peppery stem of a local climbing vine cooked with beef, mutton or fish; restaurants in the city and along the highway are known for it. Prawn malaikari, river fish and kalojira rice are household favourites.

Communities in the coastal south honour Bonbibi before entering the forest, and many people from Khulna join the Rash Mela gathering on Dublar Char in the Sundarbans each winter. Folk theatre, kirtan and the songs of fishermen are part of local life, and the city has an active theatre and literary scene.

Places to visit in Khulna

1. Khan Jahan Ali Bridge (Rupsha Bridge)

   A long road bridge over the Rupsha opened in 2005, linking Khulna city with the road to Mongla and Bagerhat. The riverside below is a popular evening spot for views of boats and the city skyline.

2. Dakshindihi Rabindra Complex

   The family home of Mrinalini Devi, wife of Rabindranath Tagore, at Phultala, restored as a small museum with a garden and a memorial to the poet.

3. Khulna Divisional Museum

   A museum on the Khulna–Jashore road with archaeological finds from Bharat Bhayna, Khan Jahan Ali’s Bagerhat and other sites across the south-west.

4. Acharya P. C. Ray’s house, Raruli

   The birthplace of the pioneering chemist in Paikgachha, set beside the Kobadak river and preserved as a heritage site with a memorial college nearby.

5. Sundarbans from Dacope and Koyra

   Boats from Nalian, Kalabagi and Koyra take visitors into the western mangrove forest, with tidal creeks, spotted deer and, if you are lucky, tiger tracks. Trips need forest department permits, usually arranged by tour operators.

What Khulna is famous for

• Khulna chui jhal
• Bagda (tiger) shrimp
• Sundarbans honey
• Mud crab

How to get to Khulna

Buses from Dhaka’s Sayedabad and Gabtoli terminals cross the Padma Bridge and reach Khulna in roughly four to five hours. Trains over the Padma Bridge rail link, such as the Jahanabad Express, make the trip in a similar time, while intercity trains like the Chitra Express run on the longer route via the Jamuna bridge. Jashore airport, with frequent flights from Dhaka, is about an hour and a half away by road.

Markets and haats

Boro Bazar, Khulna

The city’s old wholesale market on the bank of the Bhairab, a dense quarter of spice, rice, fish, hardware and grocery traders that supplies the whole south-west.

Khulna New Market

A large planned shopping centre in the city for clothes, shoes, saris, electronics and household items.

Rupsha fish ghat

Wholesale fish and shrimp landings on the Rupsha riverfront, busiest early in the morning when catches from the rivers and ghers arrive.

Khulna at a glance

Shops from Khulna on Midmart

No shop from Khulna is selling on Midmart yet.

Questions about Khulna

More districts in Khulna Division

• Bagerhat Khan Jahan’s mosque city on the edge of the Sundarbans
• Chuadanga Border farmland of date molasses, betel leaf and the Darshana sugar mill
• Jashore The flower capital, home of date molasses and the Benapole gateway
• Jhenaidah Sultanate mosques, Naldanga temples and the giant banyan of Kaliganj
• Kushtia Land of Lalon and Tagore, tiler khaja and Kumarkhali handlooms
• Magura Raja Sitaram’s country of jute fields, pera sandesh and Khamarpara doi
• Meherpur Mujibnagar, where Bangladesh’s first government took its oath
• Narail S M Sultan’s Chitra river country, home of boat races and cricketers
• Satkhira Early mangoes, soft-shell crabs and the western Sundarbans