Grabbing public property has seemingly turned into a normal occurrence. And this has happened either because of the weakness of the administration or the acquiescence of corrupt elements within it to the predatory acts of sinister men. Before us is now the sordid story of how unscrupulous men have been commandeering land along the Cox's Bazar coastline, destroying the trees there and turning the area into shrimp enclosures. Observe the horror of it all: of the 17,214 acres of mangrove forests and hilly land, under the department of forests, as many as 5,000 acres have already been seized and on them have appeared 500 shrimp enclosures.
This wrongdoing has to do with the collective failure of forest department and district administration including district revenue and land offices. There is the matter of corruption, of collusion between these greedy shrimp traders and individuals in the department of forests and local administration. Yet in the public interest, it is important that the Cox's Bazar coastline be saved, and those responsible for the crime be punished.
There have been legal moves about protecting the mangrove forests. About 111 cases have been filed against 1,500 people in the coastal region on the issue of illegal land grabbing. The Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon has a point: both the district administration and the forest department are evading responsibility by pointing the finger at each other over the problem. The need is clear: investigate both the organs of the government. If purposeful steps are not there, Cox's Bazar will soon turn into an abode of modern-day pirates.