UNESCO's World Heritage Site has expressed concern over the construction of the proposed 1,320-megawatt coal-fired power plant near the Sundarbans at Rampal in Bagerhat.
The UN body is also worried about the movement of big vessels carrying equipment and materials for the power plant gravely affecting wildlife. Moreover entrepreneurs will be attracted to set up industries closer to the mangrove forest once the power plant goes into operation, experts say.
A report published recently in a local Bangla daily said that the UN agency has asked the government to conduct Comprehensive Strategic Environmental Assessment before implementing any development project near the Sundarbans.
UNESCO's apprehension about danger involved in plying large vessels inside the forest has come true with the capsize of an oil tanker in the river Shela in the Sundarbans on November 09 last. The tanker, carrying 3,57,000 litres of furnace oil, sank after a cargo vessel hit it from behind, according to a report published in The Financial Express (FE).
The FE reports says, most of the 3,57,and 000 litres of oil spilled into the river stretching over an area of around 60 kilometres. The oil spill happened near the Chadpai Wildlife Sanctuary, the largest aquatic protected area and home of two threatened dolphin species: Ganges Dolphin and Irrawaddy Dolphin.
The UNDP Bangladesh, expressing concern over the oil tanker capsize, said that the accident once again highlights the need for a complete ban on the movement of all commercial vessels through the Sundarbans. The UNDP, however, appreciated government's decision to shut down, press reports say, the Shela river route temporally to all vessels.
In fact, Green activists at home and abroad continue to voice concern over the proposed coal-fired power plant to be set up at Rampal. They have urged the government to relocate the powerplant to save the Sunderbans.
The Power Development Board (PDB) had signed a deal on January 29, 2012 with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) of India to build the power plant.
The proposed project, on an area of over 1834 acres of land, is situated 14-km north of the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest. It will be the country's largest power plant. Green activists who have been expressing concern over the probable adverse effect on the biodiversity of the Sundarbans urged the government to shift the proposed plant at a distant place from the forest.
The Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (BAPA) in a statement issued a day before signing of the agreement on the joint venture power project said that the plant would release toxic chemicals harming biodiversity of the Sundarbans. The power plant which is supposed to dump hot water into the river will gravely affect a variety of species of marine life at adjacent water bodies throwing them on the verge of extinction.
Salinity and river erosion have already started taking their tolls on the green belts that surround the Sundarbans. Environmentalists fear that if corrective measures are not taken right now the green belts around the mangrove forest will face serious threat to their existence. Already excessive salinity has resulted in the deaths of a large number of trees and vegetations at the coastal areas including Sarankhola and Morrelganj.
Declared as a world heritage site by UNESCO, the Sundarbans alone constitutes about 41 per cent of the total reserve forest area of the country. The forest was badly affected in cyclone Sidr and Aila in 2007 and 2009.
The number of tigers in the Sundarbans is fast decreasing as poachers in connivance with a section of unscrupulous forest department officials continue to kill those. Shortage of sweet water and food after cyclonic storms Sidr and Aila battered the Sundarbans has also gravely affected the wildlife. Forest department sources say 440 tigers including 221 adults now inhabit the Sundarbans. The number of the Royal Bengal Tigers is decreasing gradually in the absence of a comprehensive plan to protect them. Above all the Sundarbans provides sanctuary for globally endangered dolphins.
The environmentalists have thus observed that if the observation made by the experts on probable environmental hazards to the Sundarbans has any basis, it should be measured urgently by the competent authority before work on the proposed thermal power plant begins at Rampal. It is not difficult to find out a suitable alternative site for the power project in the country. True, the country needs electricity badly for its overall development, but surely not at the cost of its precious wonder of nature -- the Sundarbans.
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