Industries polluting the Sundarbans

The Sundarbans is at stake. According to the environment ministry itself, there is existence of 190 industries and factories within 10 kilometres of this largest mangrove forest of the world. Even of these industries, there are 24 under-the-red-category industries that can cause serious harm to the forest.

It is really disconcerting that the government has allowed setting-up of these industries one after another despite the fact that the area of the forest was declared ecologically critical area way back in 1999. The licensing and operation of these industries prove that the government is quite neglectful of the importance of this forest to the people and climate, of not just southern region of Bangladesh, but all of the country.

When super cyclones such as Sidr and Aila lashed at Bangladesh some years ago, the Sundarbans acted like a buffer zone. Though these cyclones caused immense destruction of the flora and fauna, the forest indeed saved the country in some way. But nature has great power of resilience and the forest soon recovered its natural freshness and rich biodiversity.

We cannot stop the vagaries of nature, but we certainly check its misuse. But in case of the Sunderbans, the country has miserably failed to do it. Trees are continuously felled and valuable animals including the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer of the forest are poached.

The size of the Indian part of the Sunderbans is much smaller than the Bangladesh part, yet the tiger population in our part is dwindling contrary to the reality of the Indian part where the number of the big cat is actually increasing. Despite the oil spill tragedy on the Shela river in 2014, the river is still used for this kind of dangerous transport of oil through tankers with a brief pause.

Even when all these happening before our eyes; the government is yet to back down and scrap its plan of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Rampal. If this is how things go on with the forest, it is sure to lose its invaluable biodiversity.

Currently, a bench of the High Court is dealing with a case on sustainability of the Sundarbans in the face of presence of the 190 industries within the 10 km radius of the forest. It is expected that the bench will give such an order that would declare existence of harmful industries within 10 km areas of the forest illegal for protecting the forest.  

 

Industries polluting the Sundarbans

The Sundarbans is at stake. According to the environment ministry itself, there is existence of 190 industries and factories within 10 kilometres of this largest mangrove forest of the world. Even of these industries, there are 24 under-the-red-category industries that can cause serious harm to the forest. It is really disconcerting that the government has allowed setting-up of these industries one after another despite the fact that the area of the forest was declared ecologically critical area way back in 1999. The licensing and operation of these industries prove that the government is quite neglectful of the importance of this forest to the people and climate, of not just southern region of Bangladesh, but all of the country. When super cyclones such as Sidr and Aila lashed at Bangladesh some years ago, the Sundarbans acted like a buffer zone. Though these cyclones caused immense destruction of the flora and fauna, the forest indeed saved the country in some way. But nature has great power of resilience and the forest soon recovered its natural freshness and rich biodiversity. We cannot stop the vagaries of nature, but we certainly check its misuse. But in case of the Sunderbans, the country has miserably failed to do it. Trees are continuously felled and valuable animals including the majestic Royal Bengal Tiger and spotted deer of the forest are poached. The size of the Indian part of the Sunderbans is much smaller than the Bangladesh part, yet the tiger population in our part is dwindling contrary to the reality of the Indian part where the number of the big cat is actually increasing. Despite the oil spill tragedy on the Shela river in 2014, the river is still used for this kind of dangerous transport of oil through tankers with a brief pause. Even when all these happening before our eyes; the government is yet to back down and scrap its plan of establishing a coal-fired power plant at Rampal. If this is how things go on with the forest, it is sure to lose its invaluable biodiversity. Currently, a bench of the High Court is dealing with a case on sustainability of the Sundarbans in the face of presence of the 190 industries within the 10 km radius of the forest. It is expected that the bench will give such an order that would declare existence of harmful industries within 10 km areas of the forest illegal for protecting the forest.