Mangrove forest plundered
2.5km road project in a Bhola char gets AL lawmaker's blessings; flouts HC order, environmental law
Trees felled by a band of locals, reportedly backed by a lawmaker, to construct a road inside a mangrove forest of Char Kumkumari, Bhola. The photo was taken Friday afternoon.
Within hours after a court judgement that clearly directed the authorities to abide by the forest and environment acts, groups of people have chopped down thousands of trees inside a mangrove forest and a designated wildlife sanctuary to build a road in the remote island of Char Kukrimukri.
The lawmaker of Bhola 4 (Charfashion) Abdullah Al Islam alias Jacob and his local supporters backed chopping down of the mangrove forest for building the 2.5-kilometres long road without any environmental clearance or permission from the forest department as required by the law of the land.
The destruction of the forest would also greatly contribute to habitat loss for thousands of wildlife species, which depend on the forest. According to Ronald Halder, a wildlife expert and author of the "A Photographic Guide to Birds of Bangladesh", said that Char Kukrimukri is home to a wide range of winter and local birds.
"The road would instantly cause habitat loss for the wildlife in the area," Halder said. In addition, hundreds of deer, otters, fowls live in the mangrove forest of Char Kukrimukri.
The forest department has vehemently objected to the project and suggested at least two alternatives for building the road, bypassing the forest area. The local Union Parishad planned to link two villages Babugonj and Patila, through the proposed road.
The hurried felling of the trees has also defied the law that says the sale of the trees must be completed after floating a tender in the media.
The 20,000-acre (about the size of 18,200 football fields) man-made mangrove forest is one of the prides of the forest department. Forest officials said that if the road is built, illegal logging and poaching would increase overnight. The wildlife would face severe threat and most importantly, the bio diversity of the area would be at stake.
The road would also jeopardise Bangladesh's commitment to the international community to fight global warming. The country's forest cover has alarmingly shrunk to less than 10 percent of land mass with only 0.02 hectares of per capita forest land, one of the lowest in the world.
In 2010, the High Court issued an injunction on the Char Kukrimukri road project after the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) filed a writ petition. On Wednesday afternoon (June 8), just after the judgement was verbally passed by the High Court bench, some local people in Char Kukrimukri announced over the loudspeakers in the name of the local lawmaker that the road project would go ahead.
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of BELA, said that the cutting of trees is a direct defiance to the High Court judgement.
"The judgement required compliance with the provisions of Environment conservation Act 1995 and the Forest Act 1912 while constructing the road," Rizwana said, "Such hurried implementation is clearly malafide and against public interest," she added.
At around noon on Frday, our correspondent found labourers working to construct the earthen road. Nearby, several hundred people with axes in hand were indiscriminately cutting down the tress.
Divisional Forest Officer in Bhola Sayed Ali told The Daily Star that the road would destroy the mangrove forest and make the area most vulnerable to natural disasters.
"We have officially sought help from the police and the magistracy but nothing has been done to stop the felling of the trees," Sayed said.
"Following Wednesday's announcement over loudspeaker in the area, we tried to file a General Diary (GD) with the Char Fashion police station but the police were dilly dallying with recording the GD," Sayed said. "Till today, they (police) have not given us the GD number." he added.
Hashem Mohajon, an aspiring chairman of the area, widely known as the local lawmaker's own man and also leading an influential group in the area said that enthusiastic local people started felling the trees and construction of the road.
"The process of floating the tender is now underway. I am not involved with the matter though," he said. As soon as he finished talking to this correspondent, Hasem Mohajon with his men, started cutting down the trees.
Nur-e-Alam, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Char Fashion said that after he was informed a team visited the spot on June 9 and forbid the locals from cutting the trees without permission.
"But I could not do anything else, but the forest department can always prosecute those people who are involved in plundering its forest," He added.
Despite repeated attempts throughout yesterday Abdullah Al Islam alias Jacob, lawmaker for Bhola-4 (Charfashion) could not be reached for his comment.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=189626
[ALOCHONA] Re: [KHABOR] We have not forgotten those Black BNP days
Very good. I like the one about Tareq - it should be circulated more widely and rammed into the brains of BNP.
We have not forgotten, nor shall we forget, the black days of AL either.
Last night on a tv discussion program (ATN I think) a commentator was asked what can the public do if AL and BNP continue to burn buses when in opposition. The commentator replied that the electorate has no choice but to burn the buses of politicians.
I liked it.
We can complain about our slow progress but at least popular commentary is no longer dominated comfortably by partisan thinkers. This is a wonderful development.
Better late than never!
--- In alochona@yahoogroups.com, "Engr. Shafiq Bhuiyan" <srbanunz@...> wrote:
>
> We have not forgotten those *Black* BNP days
>
> On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 9:32 AM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@...> wrote:
>
> >
> >
> > *BNP days .......**
> > *
> >
> > JCD let loose terror on DU campus:
> >
> > http://thedailystar.net/2004/09/12/d4091201011.htm
> > http://thedailystar.net/2004/09/12/d4091201011p.htm
> >
> > [image: DailyStar_JCD_violence.bmp]
> >
> > Activists of Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal (JCD), student wing of the BNP, chase
> > and beat up Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) supporters including a women
> > student at Dhaka University yesterday (top); later, BCL workers torched a
> > bus in protest near the TSC on the campus (left); JCD activists also
> > ransacked the office room of DUTA President Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique. PHOTO:
> > STAR
> >
> > *Tareq Promoting Violence:*
> >
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YepviTdfVFw
> >
> > [image: Tarek_violence.JPG] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YepviTdfVFw>
> > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YepviTdfVFw
> >
> >
> > [image: PoliceAction2006.jpg]
> > Police action: 2006 Picture .......
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
> "Sustha thakon, nirapade thakon ebong valo thakon"
>
> Shuvechhante,
>
> *Shafiqur Rahman Anu
> *
> *Senior Network Planner *
> *Haya Water
> *P.O.BOX 1047, P.C 133 Al Khuwair,
> Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
> Tel: +968-24643218
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> srbanunz@..., shafiqurrahman@...,
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Re: [ALOCHONA] 19 June Indian CAS will visit BD and take salute during BMA passing out parade
Corporal Sahib - what do you want us to believe. We await your direction......
-----Original Message-----
From: mimunshi
Sent: Jun 8, 2011 9:00 PM
To: alochona@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [ALOCHONA] 19 June Indian CAS will visit BD and take salute during BMA passing out paradeAs I indicated earlier the Indian CAS will be taking salute from the new graduates of the BMA course. Does this mean our army has become subservient to the Indian army or is this merely a symbolic gesture intended to humiliate us?
Regards
MBI Munshi
------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ ---
http://www.amadershomoy1.com/content/2011/06/09/news0711. htm
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[ALOCHONA] Fantasy frontiers: Indian, Pakistani and Chinese border disputes
Fantasy frontiers: Indian, Pakistani and Chinese border disputes
Disputed borders are both a cause and a symptom of tensions between big neighbours in South Asia. When the colonial power, Britain, withdrew from India it left a dangerous legacy of carelessly or arbitrarily drawn borders. Tensions between India and China flare on occasion, especially along India's far north-eastern border, along the state of Arunachal Pradesh. In recent years Chinese officials have taken to calling part of the same area "South Tibet", to Indian fury, as that seems to imply a Chinese claim to the territory. A failure to agree the precise border, and then to demarcate it, ensures that future disagreements may flare again.
Pakistan, too, is beset by difficult borders. Afghanistan, to the north, has long been a hostile neighbour. This is largely because Afghanistan refuses to recognise the frontier—known as the Durand line—between the countries, drawn by the British.
Most contentious of all, however, are the borders in Kashmir, where Pakistan, India and China all have competing claims. By the time of independence, in 1947, it was clear that many Indian Muslims were determined to break off from Hindu-majority India. It fell to a British civil servant, who knew nothing of the region, to draw a line of partition between territory that would become Pakistan and India. Pakistan was given Muslim dominated areas in the far north west, plus territory in the east (which itself got independence as Bangladesh in 1971). The rulers of some disputed areas, notably Kashmir, were told to choose which country to join.
While Kashmir's Hindu rulers prevaricated, hoping somehow to become an independent country, Pakistan's leaders decided to force the issue. Since Kashmir was (and is) a Muslim majority territory, Pakistan felt justified in seeing Pushtun warlords charge in from the north-west of Pakistan, late in 1947, to seize control of Kashmir. In response India, apparently invited by Kashmir's rulers, deployed its national army and stopped the invaders taking Srinagar, Kashmir's capital, located in the Kashmir valley, the most coveted part of the territory. The resulting line of control, by and large, remains the de-facto international frontier within Kashmir and, in effect, is accepted by Paksitan and India. Huge numbers of Indian and Pakistani soldiers remain in Kashmir today as both countries profess to be the rightful authority for the rest of Kashmir.
Complicating matters, China has also extended its influence, and control, over portions of Kashmir, largely with the support of Pakistan, an ally.
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