Restrict all harmful activities in Sundarbans
The government should immediately impose restriction upon all sorts of activities that may harm the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest, said experts yesterday.
The speakers include environmentalists, geographers, biodiversity experts, forests officials, conservationists from home and abroad.
They were addressing the publication ceremony of a book titled “Sundarbans Atlas”, authored by Helmut Denzau, Gertrud Neumann and Peter Gerngross and published by the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), at the capital's Bon Bhaban.
Gertrud Neumann-Denzau, one of the authors, presented a keynote on the Atlas, Prof Hermann Kudrass, Sk Ghulam Hussain and Hasan Mansur made brief comments on the book.
They said the Atlas would be helpful for all professionals who go to the mangrove forests.
Prof Nazrul Islam, former faculty of the department of Geography at Dhaka University; and Yunus Ali, chief conservator of forest, the Department of Forests, were present as the chief and special guest with Prof Sakhawat Ali Khan, chairman of SEHD, in the chair.
Prof Nazrul said so many odd things were happening in the Sundarbans; now motorboats were plying through the waterbodies of the forests.
Conservationists need to raise their voices against such practices, he said. Frequent accidents in the river through the Sundarbans are causing harms to the forests, he added.
The book contains a map of the entire Sundarbans, both India and Bangladesh parts, also a 55 forest compartment maps of Bangladesh part and a detailed index gazetteer of place names (English).
Sundarbans Atlas is intended for users like conservationists, scientists, employees of the forest department, law enforcing and other authorities, tourists, tourist companies, journalists, NGOs and legal resource users.
Phillip Gain, director of SEHD, moderated the programme.
Syed Ishtiaq Uddin Ahmed, country director of the International Union for Conservation of Nature; Prof Monirul H Khan, eminent tiger specialist;Dr Ronald Hader, nature conservationist; Dr Tapan Kumar Dey, former conservationist of forest (CF) Wildlife: Mihir Biswas, joint secretary Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa), also spoke on the occasion.
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