Mechanised stone extraction from 3 rivers illegal
The High Court (HC) yesterday declared illegal stone extraction by using excavators and boma machine (machine used for collecting stones) from the bed of three rivers in Sylhet.
Three rivers--Piain, Dwaki and Dhala--are flowing through Goainghat and Companiganj upazilas of the district.
The court also directed the government to immediately stop the use of excavator machines in stone quarries from the three rivers and remove those to protect their eco-system and lives, property and livelihood of people in the river areas.
In the judgement, the HC bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui stressed the need for protecting environment and natural eco-system of the country.
It observed that the forest and environment ministry and the directorate of environment are the sole authority for protecting environment and eco-system of the country.
If the forest and environment ministry, and the directorate of environment feel necessity of formulating any guideline for extraction of stones from any area, they may do so keeping the ecological system intact and that no other ministries shall have any say in this regard, it said.
The HC delivered the verdict upon a public interest litigation filed by the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association (Bela).
Bela's lawyer Iqbal Kabir Liton told The Daily Star that unscrupulous traders now cannot collect stones from the three rivers in Sylhet by using excavators following this judgement.
He, however, said the stone of the river areas can be quarried from the rivers in traditional way without using mechanised excavators.
In July last year, Bela filed the writ petition with the HC, stating that unscrupulous people are quarrying stones from the rivers of Piain, Dwaki and Dhala damaging land and natural eco-system of the rivers, and lives, property and livelihoods of people living in those areas.
The petition also sought directions from the HC upon the government to stop the operation of the mechanised excavators and also remove the same from the rivers.
Barrister Rokanuddin Mahmud and advocate Subrata Chowdhury argued for the petitioner, while Deputy Attorney General Razik Al Jalil stood for the government.
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