Evening arrives on the crest of waves at Shubho Sandhya beach as the jhau trees planted along the shore whispers melodies to the breeze.

This beautiful scene, however, may not last long.

This serene beach in Barguna’s Taltali upazila, recently gaining popularity among nature-lovers, is under serious threat of erosion.

To protect the coastline from eroding, forest department had undertaken afforestation programme on 125 acres of land adjacent to the beach, but illegal sand-lifting activity aggravated the erosion, forest officials claimed.

Samir Ranjon Mistree, Nalbunia forest bit officer, said, this year heavy tidal surge from the Bay of Bengal washed away at least 30 acres of forestland, and around 30,000 trees of the reserve forest have been uprooted due to soil erosion.

During 2017 and 2018, the total loss due to erosion was around 50 acres of forestland and 50,000 trees, he said.

Compared to 2018, this year the landmass of the beach has subsided by five feet, he added.

Located at the point where Baleshwar, Bishkhali and Payra rivers meet the Bay of Bengal, the 6-km long beach is naturally prone to soil erosion. But the sand lifting activity by the authorities of a private power plant last year aggravated the natural occurrence, according to Debdas Mukharjee, assistant conservator for forest of Patuakhali forest division.

“Last year, an under-construction private power plant near Taltali used heavy dredgers to lift sand from the estuary of the three rivers adjacent to the beach. Due to this, the erosion has intensified,” he said.

“When we informed Taltali upazila administration and Barguna district administration about the matter, the sand-lifting activity was stopped,” Debdas added.

The Daily Star had published a news on December 6, 2018 about the effects of the sand-lifting activity for construction of the 307-megawatt coal-fired ISO Tech power plant near Nishanbaria area, three kilometres east from Shuvo Sandhya beach. Apprehension about increased intensity of soil erosion was reported in that news.

“I used to have a tea stall on the seashore, but when the erosion intensified, I had to move it further inside the mainland,” said Abdul Khalek Dewan, a local resident. 

To make the beach more accessible to tourists, upazila administration has been building a 4-km link road from Taltali town.

Visiting the beach, this correspondent found that even the guide walls, erected to carpet the road, have fallen apart due to the soil erosion.  

Araf Hasan, a student of Patuakhali Science and Technology University, visiting the beach, said, it is sad that such a nice beach is losing its beauty because of erosion.

He hoped that the government would take immediate steps to protect the beach.