AS for ecological consequence, the damage is hardly repairable to make up for what happened due to the sinking of an oil tanker in a Sundarbans river on Tuesday. News reports said, a tanker carrying some 3.57 lakh liters of furnace oil sank in the Shela River at Joymonigol under the East Zone of the Sundarbans after a cargo trawler hit it amid dense fog. But the preparation of the authority concerned to tackle such accidents proved inefficient, as they have virtually no arrangement to make a quick recovery. Though, such accidents are not new, rather this is the third vessel to sink in the Sundarbans this year. Authorities in Bangladesh have hardly taken any lessons from the past. According to the Forest officials, the spill had spread along a 40 km section of the river threatening the rare dolphin sanctuary of the Sundarbans.
However, it is hopeful that the Bangladesh Navy has sent four ships to deal with the spilled oil. Two navy ships are already working there. They are carrying chemicals to separate the oil from the water. We want to rely on our navy officials, though some experts say, they have little experience in dealing with such problems.
The Sundarbans is a vast river delta on the northern shore of the Bay of Bengal. Its mangroves and rivers are home to a vast array of plant and animal life, much of it unique to the region. Rare plants, animals especially the Royal Bengal Tiger and precious flora and fauna, which make Sundarbans a heritage. The government declared areas in the Southern Sundarbans to be a dolphin sanctuary in 2011, after research suggested some 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins lived in the area. It has an economic influence on the life of more than two crore people of Southern Bangladesh. 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 being endangered by the man made hostilities due to lax government supervision.
Moreover, it is not legal to operate vessels through protected forests, but after the decision to lift ban by Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Agency (BIWTA), hundreds of vessels including heavy oil tankers have been navigating the Shela River since 2011. We urge the government to rethink the ban for the sake of our most prestigious world heritage site Sundarbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest. Bangladesh Navy can play a significant role in this regard. Dredging of Mongla-Ghasiakhali channel is now an immediate necessity to restore the navigability of the rivers across Sundarbans. Besides, no heavy marine vessels should be allowed to run using the water channels of Sundarbans.
