Teknaf Game Reserve, Game reserve in Teknaf, Bangladesh

Teknaf Game Reserve is a protected forest area covering terrain along the Naf River and Bay of Bengal, featuring hill forests and several caves. The landscape combines dense woodland, rocky slopes, and water features that shape its diverse terrain.

Teknaf Game Reserve was declared in 1983 under the Bangladesh Wildlife (Preservation) (Amendment) Act, 1974, on 11,615 hectares of hill forest. It was created to protect wild Asian elephants and remains the country's only game reserve forest. Ten blocks of the Cox's Bazar (South) Forest Division's Whykong, Silkhali and Teknaf ranges were included.

The reserve's Bengali name, Teknaf Game Reserve, is still used locally alongside the official Teknaf Wildlife Sanctuary. The forest lies across five unions of Teknaf upazila — Baharchhara, Nhila, Sabrang, Teknaf Sadar and Whykong — and the Naf River marks its eastern edge, with Myanmar's border just beyond. Kudum Cave, known as the bat cave, shelters two bat species, four snail species, four fish species in its stream and three spider species.

The reserve lies on the Teknaf peninsula, about 48 km from Cox's Bazar town, with the Naf River on the east and the Bay of Bengal on the west. It stretches 28 km north to south and only 3 to 5 km east to west, so routes run lengthwise. Streams are seasonal: full in the monsoon and dry in winter.

Kudum Cave is described as Bangladesh's only sand-and-clay cave, formed in soft soil rather than rock. Two bat species roost inside, alongside four snail species, three spider species and four fish species in the stream flowing through it. Birds have been seen entering from outside to feed on the cave's snails.