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 in the afore-mentioned memphasised 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 Chittagong Hill Tracts (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 the CHT. Participants at 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.
It was revealed in that meeting that Bangladesh is collaborating with seven other countries of the Himalayan and Hidukusk regions to implement a project on mountain development. The project has been undertaken by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). The five-year ICIMOD programme will be implemented in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar and Pakistan. The countries will share their knowledge about mountain and exchange data. It is expected that the sustainable development programme taken by the ICIMOD will create employment generation and encourage non-farm economic activities among the poor people particularly women under the project.
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 a heavy toll in terms of human lives, livestock and property almost every year following landslides, there is no respite from hill cutting.
Green activists have been demanding formulation of a national hill management policy for quite a long time. They also urged the authorities concerned to take drastic action against those engaged in cutting hills and trees illegally resulting in deaths and serious environmental hazards. The environmentalists blame some politically influential circles for chopping trees, developing lands for housing projects and constructing roads in an unplanned manner in the hilly areas. They allege that the government appears to be indifferent to such illegal activities of a handful of powerful groups which have already caused enough damage to environment.
Besides, a large number of people perished following landslides in the recent past across the Chittagong hill areas. Green activists say that reckless felling of trees results in developing cracks on the hills in summer due to excessive heat. Afterwards when the rain water enters the cracks, the soft hill soil becomes too vulnerable to slides. In the wake of a landslide, the local administration asks the people living in hill slopes to evacuate. But they are not permanently rehabilitated. After the rainy season is over, people return to their previous settlements and start living until fresh slides subsequently claim lives and destroy properties. Therefore, it is essential to formulate national hill management policy to protect the hills from gross human interference and to avert further environmental degradation.
On June 26 last year, rain-induced landslides left 114 people dead in Bandarban, Cox's Bazar and Chittagong which got wide media coverage. According to an unofficial estimate, the death toll would be much higher as many people remained buried under tonnes of mud. Following the tragedy, the authorities moved a large number of settlers from the hill slopes to safer places in relief camps. But many dwellers refused to comply with the directives of the local administration and preferred to live under constant threat of landslides.
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.
(E-mail: khalilbdh@gmail.com)
SOS from hills in CHT region
Khalilur Rahman | Published: December 22, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2024 06:01:00
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