ONLY the wise thinking of the saner elements in the government can save the world’s largest mangrove forest — the Sundarbans from being stripped of it prestige as a heritage site. Concern about the possible status degradation of Sundarbans by Unesco seems to have no reaction from the government. A local daily on Sunday reported that Sundarbans might loose its dignity as world’s heritage site and is very likely to be listed as an extinct heritage site. The most probable causes, as the Unesco said, are — setting up of the Rampal Power Project, water-ways for India through Pashur River across the Sundarbans and industrial bases including shrimp culture around the mangrove forest. These are largely polluting the Sundarbans’ environment.
We expressed our concern about the probable damages of Sundarbans due to Rampal Power Project before. To our utter surprise, the government has not taken any measure to protect the most unique and globally important world heritage site. Bangladesh has only three world heritage sites including Sundarbans. The two others are — ‘ruins of the Paharpur Buddha Vihara’ and ‘Satgambuj Mosque’. So, it should be an eye opener for the policy makers who are rather busy for easy gains ignoring the national cost.
The Director of the World Heritage Centre of Unesco in last July sent a letter to Bangladesh High Commission at Unesco pointing to the probable environmental degradation of Sundarbans. The High Commission duly drew the attention of the Environment and Forest Ministry, Foreign Ministry, Power Division and Bangladesh Unesco Commission regarding Unesco’s disappointment in due process. The letter conveyed a message to the Environment Ministry requesting required measures to maintain the ecological and biological diversity of the Sundarbans. But the grave upset is that no measure has yet been taken to protect the largest mangrove forest. Even, the Ministry did not submit its report on their actions regarding Sundarbans which was scheduled to be submitted on 1st February’ 2013.
Let alone the Unesco concern, Sundarbans not only is a world heritage site, its rare plants, animals especially the Royal Bengal Tiger and precious flora and fauna, which make it a heritage, have an economic influence on the life of more that two crore people of Southern Bangladesh. Sundarbans protects the southern part of the country from natural calamities as during the time of Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009. Undoubtedly, the life-centering around Sundarbans is a sub-culture in itself. Withdrawal of water flow by Farakka has already caused huge damage to it. Sea level rise due to climate change is another threat to this unfortunate forest. It is now again endangered by the man made hostilities of the government.
We again advise the government to take immediate actions to save Sundarbans. As Bangladesh is more prone to frequent natural disasters, it is very imperative to protect the Sundarbans — one of the most prestigious world heritage sites.
