Govt busy hiding Sundarbans disaster
Rather than giving attention to clear the Sundarbans waters of oil properly, the government is busy covering up the negative impacts of the spillage, a team of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) said at Dhaka Reporters Unity yesterday, after a visit to the affected areas.
The seven-member team saw many people hired by Bangladesh Forest Department razing small trees and bushes smeared with oil, said Sharif Jamil, joint secretary of Bapa, who led the group on December 16.
“We never thought that the government would take the incident so lightly....Now oil is everywhere," he said. "We did not see any bird and live aquatic animals including dolphin during our visit along 25km through the forest.”
An oil tanker sank in the Shela river of the forest near Mongla Port on December 9, spilling above 3.50 lakh litres of furnace oil. The spillage has now spread along over 70km.
The team recommended that the government declare it as a disaster, deploy armed forces to collect oil, permanently ban the movement of commercial vessels through the forest, and restore the previous Khasiakhali route.
It also urged the government to back away from the proposed Rampal and Orion electricity plant projects near the forest and stop leasing out Surdarbans land.
“We want development, we want electricity, we want to see Bangladesh as a middle-income country, but not at the cost of the Surdarbans,” said noted columnist and writer Syed Abul Maksud.
Bapa General Secretary Dr Abdul Matin said the shipping and environment ministries were protecting the interests of businesses and indirectly assisting to destroy the forest.
Meanwhile, over 100 students of Rajshahi University formed a human chain on the campus, accusing the government of failing to assess the impact of the spillage even after 10 days and urging necessary steps to save the Sundarbans.
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