Living in deathtraps on hill slopes

About 0.8 million people living on hill slopes in Chittagong city and its adjoining areas defying instruction by the district administration to move to safer places are risking their lives in the event of landslides which may occur anytime. Landslides frequently take place following rains. The monsoon is barely a fortnight away. But the settlers are still oblivious of the looming danger.

In Chittagong city, more than five hundred dwellers on hill slopes were killed in landslides during the last one decade. The situation in the districts of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) is no better. A large number of people continue to live on the foothills under constant threat of mudslides, particularly in rainy season.  According to the Department of Environment (DoE), about 0.8 million people live on the hill slopes or on top of hills in and around Chittagong city amid risks of rain-induced landslides. Alone in Matijhorna hill in the heart of the city more than fifty thousand people live on the hill slopes. About 0.2 million people live in Salimpur-Bastuhara hill on the outskirts of the port city.

The Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) has recently asked the authorities concerned to take steps against the powerful people who are engaged in constructing houses in and around the hills enhancing the risk of landslides. The BAPA has called upon the district administration to undertake permanent rehabilitation of the settlers.

The Hill Management Committee, formed in 2007, has initiated a drive to evacuate people on hill slopes. The Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong after an emergency meeting of the Committee held on May 16 last told journalists that the district administration has already evacuated forty families out of a total of 250 from Matijhorna and Bastuhara colony, apprehending hillsides. Permanent settlement of the people is a difficult task and time-consuming process and as such the district administration has taken steps for their temporary rehabilitation. The Hill Management Committee has identified 13 hills as vulnerable while the DoE recorded a total of 33 hills in and around Chittagong city as risky.

The Rangamati Hill District Council (RHDC) in a meeting held on December 11 last called for protecting hills from gross human interference. Speakers at the meeting, held for the first time in the country in observance of the International Mountain Day (IMD), said that a large number of people live in hills since time immemorial. The hill people depend entirely on forest resources for their livelihood. The speakers emphasised the need for creating mass awareness to preserve forest and environment and encouraging people to plant trees and protect hills in order to ensure sustainable development for future generation.

In another meeting organized on the same day by the CHT affairs ministry at the CIRDP auditorium in Dhaka city on the occasion of International Mountain Day, experts sounded a note of caution about the hazards of unplanned development and over population in hills of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Participants in the meeting called upon the government to check migration of people from main land to protect biodiversity of the hills which is already threatened. The meeting observed that extraction of hill resources has been continuing since the British rule without the least consideration of maintaining ecological balance of the CHT region.

As we reported earlier in this column, systematic destruction of hills in Chittagong continues unabated causing serious environmental hazards. This has been going on for creating human settlements at the foot or slopes of the hills or for other purposes. Though it takes heavy toll in terms of human lives, livestock and property almost every year following landslides, there is no respite from hill cutting.

Under the prevailing circumstances, it is essential to take stringent measures against illegal hill cutting under a comprehensive national policy. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries of the world due to global climate change. We are not yet fully prepared to face the challenge. At this crucial moment if we fail to protect our environment from reckless human interference, we shall only hasten the process of impending natural disaster.

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