Destroying hills for a dumping station

When a garbage dumping station is comes at the expense of destroying hills and  jeopardising the environment, the act becomes highly contentious.

Apparently,   Banshkhali municipality authorities have done just that, by cutting  huge portions of two hills in Banshkhali upazila of Chattogram.

During a  recent visit to the area, this correspondent found over 10,000 square  feet of the two hills have been cut. Two excavators were seen razing the hills  and three dump trucks were seen transporting the soil.

Seeking anonymity, a worker said they have been cutting hills for the past three months.

Jamal Uddin, a local, said, "The dump station is being built by cutting the hills for about six months now."

Arif  Mainuddin, a Banshkhali municipality councillor, claimed that despite  having alternative sites for disposing household garbage, the mayor  has chosen hilly areas to raze hillocks under the guise of  building a dumping station, and then sell the soil of the razed hill.

"Each truck of soil is being sold for Tk 2,000," he added.

Contacted,  SM Tofail bin Hossain, mayor of the municipality, admitted  to razing hills, claiming that the municipality owns those.

He did not elaborate further and evaded questions from this correspondent.

Contacted, Banshkhali UNO Saiduzzaman  Chowdhury said, "We have  already talked about the matter with the mayor. We  will take legal action against those involved as it is illegal to cut  hills without permission."

Mohammad Kamal  Hossain, former professor of Institute of Forestry and Environmental  Science at Chittagong University, said after the dumping facility is  built here, the local ecosystem will suffer.

According to  Bangladesh Environment Preservation Act 1995, (amended in 2000), cutting a  hill without the approval of the Department of Environment (DoE) is  illegal.

The punishment for breaking the law is up  to two years' imprisonment or Tk 2 lakh fine, or both for the first  time. The second time, it is up to 10 years imprisonment or Tk 10 lakh  fine or both.

According to Bangladesh Environment Forum data, a  total of 120 hills disappeared from Chattogram city within just four decades. In  1976, there was 32.37 square km of hills in the port city and it  decreased to 14.02 square kilometers in 2008.

The  data showed that there were 200 hills in the port city 40 years ago and  60 percent of those have disappeared now.