NEWS reports in a national daily on Tuesday said the country has three environmental courts in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet, but they remained almost unutilized by the Department of Environment (DoE) to reign in gross environment related crimes. These courts have their public prosecutors and officials and in Dhaka there is also an appellate court but the users are not taking interest in them. It is almost unbelievable that the Dhaka Divisional Environment Court is now sitting idle in absence of cases when brick kilns, industrial waste in rivers and canals and pollution of city air by outdated transports are ruining public life. What appears surprising is why the DoE officials are failing to file cases when complaints are coming from everywhere.
The government enacted Environment Act in 1995 and the courts were set up in 2002 but although inspectors are taking occasional drives they allow the polluters to go unpunished except realizing some fines. The reality in most cases as per news reports is that powerful people are running the engines that pollute the air and destroy the land; but they have worked out a nexus with environmental inspectors who allow them to operate unimpeded in exchange of financial benefits. But the question is that why if the entire system has become so corrupt and compromised that even some big polluters are not in sight. They are polluting air through high-rise chimneys emitting fumes to the skyline day and night but why environmental inspectors don’t see them is the big question. Fish in the rivers and water bodies are dying from water pollution mainly from factory waste. Even charges may be filed against many city transport companies or real estate firms destroying hilltops and forest to set up new building blocks. There are many areas of public litigation, which could also create public awareness to save environment.
The observations of a senior DoE official that they avoid filing cases because of shortage of manpower and lengthy legal process is not a sensible explanation. When the government has set up the court and the requisite law is in place why DoE is shy using it. Obviously the reasons may be far apart.
The statistics that the Special Public Prosecutor of Dhaka Divisional Environmental Court has given is quite dismaying when he said since 2009 no environmental cases are coming to the court. Only 18 cases were filed in the last three years and total number stood at 467 over the past 12 years.
The scenario from two other divisional courts is not clear but the situation at Dhaka Court is suggestive of the lackluster performance in those places.
Protecting environment is the biggest challenge to protect public health and their habitat and any indulgence is not acceptable. In our view the DoE must prove its efficiency forthwith without any excuse.
