Beautiful lakes, ugly behaviour
Unlike most universities, Jahangir-nagar draws visitors from places near and far. Blessed with greenery, its quite environment is occasionally punctuated by chirping of birds. But what attracts people most is its lakes with floating lilypads.
Sadly, the people mostly enjoying the blissful nature of the university's campus are the ones responsible for making the lakes ugly. Due to dumping of waste, both by visitors and campus residents, many parts of the lakes have lost beauty.
Every winter, thousands of migratory birds flock to the campus and so do the visitors.
Resident students said the crowd of visitors often dumped waste into the lakes. Garbage is thrown from illegal shops on the campus as well, they complained.
Talking to The Daily Star, a master's student of economics, Md Obaidullah al Galib, held both visitors and campus inhabitants responsible for polluting the lakes. They dump waste in the lakes indiscriminately, he said, urging the authorities to take proper steps to stop it.
“Illegal shops and settlements are one of the causes of pollution. The estate office should take measures to control it,” he added.
According to the estate office, Jahangirnagar University campus is crisscrossed by 28 wetlands including lakes, swamps, and two ponds near Maulana Bhasani Hall and Al Beruni Hall.
During a recent visit, this correspondent saw bottles, plastic wraps, packets, and bags floating in at least seven of the lakes. Most of these lakes surround the JUCSU building, transport depot, medical centre, administrative building, and business studies faculty premises.
Terming the pollution of lakes a threat to migratory birds, zoology associate professor Dr Mohammad Kamrul Hasan, said, “The lakes and ponds are connected with each other. If one is polluted, the others would face the same fate."
He underscored the need for immediate implementation of the original design of the campus to save its biodiversity. "If they continued to be polluted like this, the biodiversity will be threatened, which will eventually scare away migratory birds."
Officials at the JU estate office admitted that pollution in and around the lakes had been increasing over the last couple of years. They, however, blamed it only on visitors.
“We were working to reduce the pollution,” said Assistant Registrar (estate) Md Abdur Rahman, without specifying what measures the office has taken so far to this effect.
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