The government is going to allocate Tk 300 crore to create for the first time a special fund for enhancing public adaptability to face the challenges of climate change.

Terming Bangladesh one of the worst victims of climate change, Finance Adviser Mirza Aziz in his budget speech said it is not humanly possible to resist the process.

"We're aware of the fact that we have to live with the risks of disaster arising from climate change. So, we have to enhance our adaptability to the changes and try to minimise the scale of damage and dislocation," he said.

He also urged all development partners and relevant agencies to come forward and contribute to the fund styled "fund for climate change".

He went on to say that the government would introduce a new programme to ensure people's "participation in environment protection" but did not elaborate on the issue.

The adviser said the super cyclone Sidr wreaked havoc on the Sundarbans and adjoining coastal belt leaving over 4,000 people dead or missing and over 50,000 injured.

The estimated loss will be around Tk 11,500 crore taking into account the damage to crops, cattle, houses and other physical installations.

Mentioning the destruction caused by Sidr, he said the government has taken up a number of significant precautionary measures including constructing over 2,000 multipurpose cyclone centres.

Besides, the government has planned to form a national disaster management training and research centre, which will conduct research on river erosion, flood, cyclone, earthquake and fire-accidents.

Steps have also been taken to prepare a national disaster management plan, the adviser added.

He put emphasis on afforestation and added the government has set a goal to increase the country's forest coverage from present 17-20 percent. As much as 4,557 hectares of forest land has been recovered from encroachers since the caretaker government came to power, he noted.