Staff Reporter :
Human rights activist Sultana Kamal on Saturday said that lives of people who live in and around the Sundarbans are being jeopardized due to unplanned development and industrial production near the UNESCO declared heritage forest.
So far, around 20 thousand people have lost their houses in erosion on both sides of Pashur river triggered by filling up of the creeks connecting to the river, Sultana Kamal said.
Several village markets and important establishments have been eroded, she added.
Sultana Kamal, who is also the Convener of National Committee to Protect the Sundarbans, was speaking as the moderator in a press briefing at Bishwa Sahitya Kendra (BSK) auditorium in Dhaka.
The programme was jointly organised by the committee and Pashur River Water Keeper.
Factories and industries are being established without study near the Sundarbans and on the bank of Pashur river. The factory owners are filling up the canals connecting to the river, hindering
the flow of tidal water, she alleged. “Lives of people are being jeopardised in the name of development beside the Sundarbans. These destitute people are moving to the cities and living in the slums, from where they are once again being evicted. We did not want to see life becoming endangered in this way in a country that earned its independence through war,” Sultana Kamal said.
The allocations for establishments on the blanks of the Pashur river have to be cancelled as the government has promised to UNESCO that it would submit a report on technicalities regarding environmental aspects of the Sundarbans and adjacent areas by 2018, hence such establishments, by no means, could be legal before that, said Sharif Jamil, a member of the national committee.
Syed Abul Maqsud, journalist and researcher of the national committee, said that the government has approved establishment of so many industries beside the Sundarbans for the sake of the commercial intentions of a handful of individuals and businessmen, thus endangering a national asset to personal gains.
Human rights activist Sultana Kamal on Saturday said that lives of people who live in and around the Sundarbans are being jeopardized due to unplanned development and industrial production near the UNESCO declared heritage forest.
So far, around 20 thousand people have lost their houses in erosion on both sides of Pashur river triggered by filling up of the creeks connecting to the river, Sultana Kamal said.
Several village markets and important establishments have been eroded, she added.
Sultana Kamal, who is also the Convener of National Committee to Protect the Sundarbans, was speaking as the moderator in a press briefing at Bishwa Sahitya Kendra (BSK) auditorium in Dhaka.
The programme was jointly organised by the committee and Pashur River Water Keeper.
Factories and industries are being established without study near the Sundarbans and on the bank of Pashur river. The factory owners are filling up the canals connecting to the river, hindering
the flow of tidal water, she alleged. “Lives of people are being jeopardised in the name of development beside the Sundarbans. These destitute people are moving to the cities and living in the slums, from where they are once again being evicted. We did not want to see life becoming endangered in this way in a country that earned its independence through war,” Sultana Kamal said.
The allocations for establishments on the blanks of the Pashur river have to be cancelled as the government has promised to UNESCO that it would submit a report on technicalities regarding environmental aspects of the Sundarbans and adjacent areas by 2018, hence such establishments, by no means, could be legal before that, said Sharif Jamil, a member of the national committee.
Syed Abul Maqsud, journalist and researcher of the national committee, said that the government has approved establishment of so many industries beside the Sundarbans for the sake of the commercial intentions of a handful of individuals and businessmen, thus endangering a national asset to personal gains.
