Staff Reporter :The government on Wednesday banned permanently sailing of all kinds of cargo vessels through the Shela River in the Sundarbans under Mongla upazila in Khulna.The decision came four days after a coal-laden cargo vessel capsized in the Shela River.However, the decision will come into effect after ferrying the ships now stranded in the river according to the Protocol on Inland Water Transit and Trade between Bangladesh and India.”Following the capsize of a coal-laden cargo vessel on March 19 and an oil tanker last year, we have decided to ban sailing of water vessels through the Shela River in order to protect the Sundarbans from further environmental disaster,” Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan told journalists after taskforce meeting on river protection, navigability and usual flow of water.He said ships with 12 feet deep are now crossing through the Mongla-Ghashiakhali channel, an alternative route to the Shela River one, and opening it for water vessels. On March 19, a Jessore-bound coal-laden cargo vessel ‘MV Sea Hosrse-1’ from Chittagong carrying 1,235 tonnes of coal sank in the Shela River at Harintana. The Department of Forests on March 20 formed a four-member committee, headed by Assistant Conservator of Forest Kamal Ahmed, to find out the possible reasons behind the vessel capsize.The report is now with Conservator of Sundarbans East Zone Saidul Islam, said Assistant Conservator Kamal Uddin Ahmed.He said the probe body recommended permanently shutting the Shela River route, salvaging the two sunken vessels on the river as soon as possible and marking the spots where vessels have capsized earlier.In December 2014, an oil tanker sank in the same river spilling 357,664 litres of furnace oil and the government banned the sailing of all kinds of vessels through the route for temporary period.Last year after capsize of an oil tanker in the river, the environmental groups and conservation organisations had repeatedly demanded shutting of river routes through the Sundarbans.But the government in January last year reopened the Shela River route to water vessels, apparently under pressure of the river transport workers. The government had reopened the Shela River route considering the interest of businesspeople, not that of general people and not even the environmental concern.
