At least half a dozen powerful land developers have been destroying thousands of acres of low-lying arable land, wetlands and designated floodplains by sand-filling in Boro Beraid, Santarkul, Kathaldia and Dumni moujas in the city's eastern fringe. The eastern fringe comprises of a large area of floodplains of the River Balu, canals and wetlands.

According to government records, none of the ongoing private housing development projects has any necessary approval.

The locals who have settled in the area and have been living there for generations, now face forced displacement from their ancestral homes as well as their traditional livelihood based on agriculture.

Most of the locals are illiterate, poverty-stricken and too week in general to put up any resistance against the land developers.

The land developers are filling up wetlands with sand in violation of several regulations of the country including Wetland Conservation Act 2000, Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP Structural Plan), Private Housing Land Development Rules 2004 and Environment Conservation Act 1995.

Mosharaf Hossain Badal, secretary of the local landowners' association named Beraid Bhumi Malik Samaj Kalyan Samity, said the powerful land developers have sand-filled and earth filled a vast expanse of arable lands in Beraid, Santarkul and Kathaldia moujas of Badda belonging to the poor locals along with wetlands, flood plains and canals.

The powerful housing developers cunningly and sometimes by using force dump sand or mud on the arable lands and wetlands only to turn the area unsuitable for farming or fishing.

Ishrat Islam, Assistant Professor of Urban and Regional Planning (URP) department of Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (Buet), conducted a study since 1989 on the wetlands of Beraid, Ashulia and Baghair (Keraniganj) areas. She also conducted a micro level study at Boro Beraid, Kathaldia, Patira and Dumni moujas.

While speaking at a seminar organised by Save Environment Movement, Beraid Bhumi Malik Samaj Kalyan Samity and the URP department of Buet at National Press Club on May 6, Islam said the developers initially purchase a few pieces of lands here and there. They fill up their purchased lands during the wet season when the adjoining plots belonging to others lay submerged. While filling their own land with sand, they craftily fill up the adjoining plots by letting the sand spread outwards onto the neighbouring plots. The neighbouring landowners are then bullied into selling their possession to the developers, as the neighbours are left with no other workable option.

This situation clearly indicates massive corruption at Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) and utter failure of its governance, added Islam.

Haji Mosharaf, a resident of Beraid present at the seminar, said his forefathers have been living in Beraid for years. Their ancestors used to make a living by rice and fish farming. ".... but the land developers have embarked on plundering our ancestral agricultural lands and homesteads."

"Even though we own the properties, but we are incapable to protect those. I call upon all of you to stand beside us," he pleaded.

Another affected local, Momin Uddin, said he used to live on farming on others' lands. The neighbourhood where he lives in is a community predominantly dependent on fishing, but now many of the traditional land cultivators and fishermen went jobless.

"We don't dare to protest the plunderers of our land as the local thugs and the police have close ties with them," said Momin Uddin.

Uttarkhan Union Parishad Chairman Kamal Uddin said a local group of brokers facilitate the land grabbers and that is one of the major problems.

While visiting Beraid, Shahidullah Bapari, an elderly local, told this correspondent that the developers first buy a few pieces of land in the area and later on, they intimidate the surrounding landowners with the connivance of local brokers to sell their property.

Shahidullah also described another tactic that is being used against the locals. Recently, there have been two 'robberies' at Aindartek in Kathaldia where two people were killed. Interestingly, in both the incidents, the attackers assaulted the victims but did not take any valuables.

"I have never heard of any incidents of robbery in the neighbourhood in 60 years of my life," he said, "It appears that there's no law in the country to protect the environment and the ancestral homes of the locals from the land grabbers."

"Half a dozen canals from the Balu River including Kathaldia Khal used to provide communication network for the entire area. What will happen now to the environment and communication if those canals are destroyed by earth filling?" wondered the Shahidullah.

Presenting salient characteristics of her findings during her study, Ishrat Islam said at the seminar that 54 percent of the studied area is wetlands. The rate of wetland loss during 1999 to 2006 is 5.41 percent. On an average, the rate of daily wetland loss in Beraid is 19,134 square feet. "There will be no wetlands left in the eastern fringe by year 2029 if the present rate of loss continues."

A total of 57.6 percent of the farmers in the area own less than four bighas of land. According to the findings, 53.2 percent of the affected locals were forced to sell their lands while 25.8 percent were compelled to sell just because their lands were turned into enclaves within areas filled up by developers.

"Though offered a lucrative price, 90.9 percent of the respondents do not want to sell their land in future," Islam said.

As a consequence of filling up wetlands and flood plains by real estate developers, the capital city has already started witnessing nightmarish water logging with storm water after even insignificant rainfall ushering in an imminent environmental disaster, said experts.

Demanding severe punishment of the developers for their illegal land development, chief engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board Enamul Haq said at the seminar, "They have destroyed two major retention ponds designated by Rajuk."

On February 17, Islam at a seminar at Brac Centre Inn said around 49 housing projects have been identified to be inside the floodplain zones and sub-floodplain zones earmarked in the DMDP covering around 9,241 acres of land.