Tanguar Haor left for plunder

Tender for leasing the Tanguar Haor, a Ramsar Site in Sunamganj, evoked very poor response from private investors once again, leaving the 3900 acre sweet water wetland exposed to plunder.

Only three proposals were submitted this time and the highest amount quoted was Tk 21 lakh, one third of Tk 63 lakh offered in the earlier for a three-year period, sources said.

One of the proposals was submitted by ruling party lawmaker Nozir Hossain and the two others by "his men", the sources said.

It was the second tender floated this year, the earlier one in February, after a stalemate of over three years. On both the occasions, the proposals were submitted by the same persons.

According to the existing rules, the quoted amount should be at least 25 per cent higher than the previous amount, they said.

After the poor response, the Haor committee at its meeting on May 20 decided to send the proposals to the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MOEF), which had rejected the proposals submitted in February.

Lack of government decision left the haor uncared for three years, allowing plunder of its fish and other resources and depriving the government of over Tk two crore revenue.

The Tanguar Haor was declared an Ecologically Critically Area (ECA) in 1999 and taken as a Ramsar Site in 2000 to protect its bio-diversity.

The Ramsar project can not be implemented due to failure in selecting investors.

Tanguar Haor is a rare site, home to 60,000 birds of over 200 species and 140 varieties of sweet water fishes.

Besides, over one lakh guest birds fly to this area during winter. People of 46 villages dependent on the haor for their livelihood.