WHILE Bangladesh is passionately seeking global attention to save itself from the impact of climate change, the initiative taken in the mid 80s to create a green belt along the eastern coast for protecting people from natural calamities has not borne fruit. As per a news report on Saturday, rampant encroachment by ruling party men and the government’s policy are responsible for causing the green belt initiative failure. Except talking excessively about the climate change impact, the successive governments did not do anything noticeable in mitigating the impact of climate change on the coastal people and their livelihood. In 1977, the government provided 12.30 lakh acres of coastal land to the Forest Department to increase forest coverage from Noakhali to Cox’s Bazaar. The green belt initiatives has virtually failed due to the government policy that encouraged leasing out forested areas for shrimp farming, ship-breaking, salt production and setting up of factories and human settlements. This policy is completely contradictory to the initiatives for increasing the forest coverage along the eastern coast of the country. This coast is repeatedly devastated by tidal and storm surges during cyclones. Land grabbers took full advantage of this flawed policy to destroy coastal forests to use the land for their personal gains.Experts said the coastal green belt alone can minimise the losses caused by cyclones and other natural disasters in Bangladesh — most vulnerable to climate change. Forest officials said the destruction of coastal forest was induced by the government’s dual policy under which it asked the Forest Department to increase the forest coverage in the coastal belt and at the same time the areas were being leased out to different users. The Chakoria Sundarban, a tourist attraction, virtually disappeared to pave the way for shrimp farming. The picture is no different at Moheshkali, Pekua and Teknaf with destruction of thousands acres of forest, now under use for shrimp farming and salt production. Coastal forests had been destroyed for ship-breaking at Sitakunda and for the re-settlement of the landless in Noakhali. That is adoption of a dual policy by the government did the irreparable damaged to the coastal belt afforestation drive.The greenery of the sandy coastal is being rapidly clear out due to government indifference and unscrupulous grabbing by the influentials, mostly ruling party men. By failing to create an effective green belt, we are failing to provide for our future and risking our very existence in the face of natural calamities which cause intense devastation. However, experts suggest that the government should reverse its present policy of double-standards and take a fresh initiative to create a green belt along the coast area to minimize the impacts of climate change and save coastal people from climatic devastation, if any.
