Sylhet Correspondent :
Illegal hill cutting is going on in Sylhetand adjoining areas which is one of the main causes of landslide, according to sources. During winter and dry season, the dishonest people used to cut the hills for collecting soil and leveling the land for construction works, sources concerned said.
Some dishonest people of seven categories including political influential, local goons and administrative persons are involved like a chained syndicate in the rampant hill cutting in the Sylhet city resulting in serious ecological imbalance and environmental disaster.
Environment activist Abdul Hye Al Hadi said, over one hundred hills have been disappeared completely in last 20 years and nearly several innocent people died in landslides caused mainly for the insensible hill cutting in the Sylhet city.
The incidents of the landslide were occurred in almost every year in Sylhet. Despite of the law of the government against hill cutting in Sylhet most of the hills are already been cut during last several years. The worst suffering areas to the unabated hill cutting are Khadim nagor, Khadimpara, Major tila, Tultikor, Tukerbazar and Jalalabad area, sources said. The seven category people who had responsible for catastrophe to the hills are local terrors and touts, influential political men, truck owners, contractors, brick kiln owners, real estate developers and some concerned government officials. Of them, the most powerful ones are the local ‘mastaans’ and influential political quarters from behind the seen, sources said.
According to the experts, rampant hill cutting in dry season is the prime cause of landslide in rainy season. Despite prohibition on hill cutting in order to protect environment, a gang of dishonest people is engaged in cutting the hills in collusion with some corrupt public officials, concerned sources said.
Sources added, some land grabbers occupied the hills at Sadar Upazila and cut these rampantly. They also cut the trees on the hills. They are building establishments by cutting hills illegally in Sylhet are now.
Livestock dept to disburse Tk 7.0m among flood-hit farmers: The Livestock Department would disburse Tk 7.0 million among the flood-hit farmers of 24 upazilas of four districts in Sylhet division preliminarily for buying cattle feed and required medicines and others. The initiative would be started within a few days and completed by the current month. Upazila-level offices of the department will disburse the fund.
Deputy Director of Livestock Department, Sylhet division, Md Gias Uddin told this correspondent the money disbursement would be completed within a fortnight. Of the total, Tk 2.6 million is being given for vaccine and medicines, Tk 3.0 million for cattle feed and Tk 1.4 million for repairing the damaged cattle sheds.
Besides, the department distributed four tonnes of high yielding varieties of grass cutting among the farmers of Sunamganj and Habiganj districts so that they could plant those on their lands and mitigate their cattle feed crisis, the official added.
A mini-nursery of grass like ‘Napier’ and ‘German’ varieties has also been established at all the upazila office premises in Sunamganj to help the farmers in time. It may be stated that the farmers of the division lost cattle feed worth Tk 1,690 million by the devastating floods this year.
Meanwhile, speakers at a rally in Sunamganj district town on Saturday demanded steps for letting the fishermen fish on the open water bodies. Besides, they demanded cancelling the lease of the water bodies, which had already been leased out to big shots.
They raised the demands since the fishermen of the district had been hardly hit due to the recent devastating floods, the speakers added.
Citizens’ forum ‘Haor Banchao, Sunamganj Banchao’ organised it with its convener Bazlul Mazid Chowdhury chaired while freedom fighters Abu Sufian and Malek Hossain Peer, professor Chitta Ranjan Talukder, advocate Enam Ahmed and the forum’s member-secretary Bindu Talukder also addressed, among others.
The speakers further noted over 0.1 million fishermen in the district were hard hit by the unprecedented and early floods this year. Besides due to polluted water they were barred from fishing in the backdrop of random deaths of fish. The government had already taken some measures to help the peasants and fishermen through food assistance.
Illegal hill cutting is going on in Sylhetand adjoining areas which is one of the main causes of landslide, according to sources. During winter and dry season, the dishonest people used to cut the hills for collecting soil and leveling the land for construction works, sources concerned said.
Some dishonest people of seven categories including political influential, local goons and administrative persons are involved like a chained syndicate in the rampant hill cutting in the Sylhet city resulting in serious ecological imbalance and environmental disaster.
Environment activist Abdul Hye Al Hadi said, over one hundred hills have been disappeared completely in last 20 years and nearly several innocent people died in landslides caused mainly for the insensible hill cutting in the Sylhet city.
The incidents of the landslide were occurred in almost every year in Sylhet. Despite of the law of the government against hill cutting in Sylhet most of the hills are already been cut during last several years. The worst suffering areas to the unabated hill cutting are Khadim nagor, Khadimpara, Major tila, Tultikor, Tukerbazar and Jalalabad area, sources said. The seven category people who had responsible for catastrophe to the hills are local terrors and touts, influential political men, truck owners, contractors, brick kiln owners, real estate developers and some concerned government officials. Of them, the most powerful ones are the local ‘mastaans’ and influential political quarters from behind the seen, sources said.
According to the experts, rampant hill cutting in dry season is the prime cause of landslide in rainy season. Despite prohibition on hill cutting in order to protect environment, a gang of dishonest people is engaged in cutting the hills in collusion with some corrupt public officials, concerned sources said.
Sources added, some land grabbers occupied the hills at Sadar Upazila and cut these rampantly. They also cut the trees on the hills. They are building establishments by cutting hills illegally in Sylhet are now.
Livestock dept to disburse Tk 7.0m among flood-hit farmers: The Livestock Department would disburse Tk 7.0 million among the flood-hit farmers of 24 upazilas of four districts in Sylhet division preliminarily for buying cattle feed and required medicines and others. The initiative would be started within a few days and completed by the current month. Upazila-level offices of the department will disburse the fund.
Deputy Director of Livestock Department, Sylhet division, Md Gias Uddin told this correspondent the money disbursement would be completed within a fortnight. Of the total, Tk 2.6 million is being given for vaccine and medicines, Tk 3.0 million for cattle feed and Tk 1.4 million for repairing the damaged cattle sheds.
Besides, the department distributed four tonnes of high yielding varieties of grass cutting among the farmers of Sunamganj and Habiganj districts so that they could plant those on their lands and mitigate their cattle feed crisis, the official added.
A mini-nursery of grass like ‘Napier’ and ‘German’ varieties has also been established at all the upazila office premises in Sunamganj to help the farmers in time. It may be stated that the farmers of the division lost cattle feed worth Tk 1,690 million by the devastating floods this year.
Meanwhile, speakers at a rally in Sunamganj district town on Saturday demanded steps for letting the fishermen fish on the open water bodies. Besides, they demanded cancelling the lease of the water bodies, which had already been leased out to big shots.
They raised the demands since the fishermen of the district had been hardly hit due to the recent devastating floods, the speakers added.
Citizens’ forum ‘Haor Banchao, Sunamganj Banchao’ organised it with its convener Bazlul Mazid Chowdhury chaired while freedom fighters Abu Sufian and Malek Hossain Peer, professor Chitta Ranjan Talukder, advocate Enam Ahmed and the forum’s member-secretary Bindu Talukder also addressed, among others.
The speakers further noted over 0.1 million fishermen in the district were hard hit by the unprecedented and early floods this year. Besides due to polluted water they were barred from fishing in the backdrop of random deaths of fish. The government had already taken some measures to help the peasants and fishermen through food assistance.
