Lovachhara river at risk for stone extraction

Influential traders have been illegally extracting stone from the Lovachhara river and its nearby hillocks in Sylhet's Kanaighat upazila for several years, making the area vulnerable to landslides.

Nobody files complaints against the unscrupulous traders for fear of retaliation as they are politically affiliated with different parties, said locals and green activists.

Visiting the area yesterday, this correspondent found that workers were busy extracting stone from deep trenches.

Some workers said traders sometimes employ dredgers, locally known as Boma Machine, to extract stone.

Humayun Kabir, officer-in-charge of Kanaighat Police Station, said Suhel Ahmed, 25, of Sunamganj was injured in a landslide while extracting stone in the area on Monday night.

Locals rushed the worker to the upazila health complex where doctors pronounced him dead. His body was sent to MAG Osmani Medical College yesterday morning for an autopsy, the OC added.

Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon's (Bapa) Sylhet unit, said unplanned extraction of stone might cause landslides on the banks of the Lovachhara and at nearby hillocks.

Around 80 metre-deep trenches have been dug in the river, making the nearby villages and agricultural land vulnerable to landslides, he added.

Tareq Mohammad Zakaria, upazila nirbahi officer of Kanaighat, said the district administration leased out some land to several traders for extracting stone. But some others were doing the same job illegally, damaging the river and hillocks.

The local administration will continue raids against illegal extraction of stone, he told The Daily Star. 

Sharif Jamil, joint secretary of Sylhet Bapa, alleged that influential traders with connivance of some local politicians and government officials were doing the illegal business defying a High Court verdict.