Sundarbans seen as resource only to be exploited
The government and people responsible for the recent oil spill regard the Sundarbans as a source of resource waiting to be exploited, said leaders of the National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports yesterday.
They fail to realise that hundreds of thousands of people's lives will be at peril if the Sundarbans is harmed, they added.
Lack of understanding and relentless greed for profit explains why no prompt action was taken by the government to contain the spill, they stressed.
The leaders of the committee, formed by leftist political parties, said these at a rally before the capital's Jatiya Press Club.
About 3.58 lakh litres of furnace oil from a tanker that sank in the Shela River in the Sundarbans on December 9 has hampered the growth of plankton -- marine and freshwater organisms that are the base of an aquatic environment's food web.
The leaders demanded, among others, a permanent ban on commercial vessels from plying the Sundarbans, bringing to book people responsible for the spill and cutting back the loss resulting from the spill.
Prof Anu Muhammad, member secretary of the committee, said “Instead of seeking help from the national or foreign experts to limit the damage of the spill, the government high-ups are still trying to downplay the disastrous impact of the spill.”
He added that the coal fired power plant to be constructed at Rampal near the Sundarbans already poses a grave danger for the mangrove forest.
The committee Convenor Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah also spoke.
Comments