City Desk :
United efforts of all the government and non-government organizations concerned can be the best ways of ensuring survival of all the living beings through protecting biodiversity.
Environment has been facing a serious threat due to various natural and man-made catastrophes posing an identical threat to the planet Earth at present so there is no way but to protect the biodiversity.
Development activists, social watchdogs and members of various volunteer organizations came up with the observations while addressing a meeting at Borokuthi river bank in Rajshahi on Sunday afternoon.
The Department of Forest and Bangladesh Biodiversity Conservation Federation (BBCF) jointly organized the meeting to mark the World Biodiversity Day 2022. Theme of the day this year was “Building a shared future for all life”. Divisional Forest Officer Rafiquzzaman Shah, President of Bangladesh Livestock Society Prof Jalal Uddin Sarder and its general secretary Dr Hemayetul Islam, local unit general secretary of Bangladesh Poultry Association Enamul Haque and BBCF leader Mijanur Rahman addressed the meeting.
The discussants unanimously stressed the need for protecting rivers and other surface water resources and wetlands from further degradation to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem along with mitigating water crises in the drought-prone Barind area.
Stressing the need for protecting the Ganges to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem along with mitigating water crises in the area Prof Jalal Sarder emphasized protecting other tributaries to keep balance of environment and save aquatic species.
He mentioned that the mighty river has now turned into a dried bed of sand dunes and silts due to depletion of flow of water. Every year, the river is losing its navigability with the deposition of millions of tonnes of silt on the riverbed.
Prof Sarder, a teacher in the department of veterinary and animal sciences of Rajshahi University, said the water in the river is now visible for three to four months only and in the rest eight to nine months of the year water level drops to its lowest ebb resulting in miles long sandy char land across the river.
The main flow of the river is from the right side of the river but the flow has now turned into stagnant water bodies in the river bed.
