An unimaginable tragedy
A tanker carrying 3.58 lakh litres of furnace oil sank in a Sunderbans river on December 9 , 2014 spilling furnace oil over a vast area . It caused unimaginable damage to the worlds largest mangrove forest. The hearts of sixteen crore people of Bangladesh also sank with it because it is their priceless heritage and they were proud of Sunderbbans. Now the mangrove forest is in grave danger, creatures living in the water and on the shore have started to die , trees are withering away, people living in that area are in great trouble as their earnings have suffered a great blow.
If the route had not been used for vessel movement this sort of incident would not have happened and the Sunderbans would have remained safe. Vessel movement must be stopped immediately but we are appalled by learning that Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan has rejected the environment ministry’s repeated pleas for imposing a permanent ban on plying of commercial vessels through Shela river in the Sinderbans .
People will not accept this rejection, whatever is needed to save the heritage must be done and without any delay otherwise people will not forgive it ever .
Nur Jahan
Chittagong
