200m more votes required to bring the Sundarbans in Directory of 7 Wonders
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
State Minister for Environment and Forests Dr Hasan Mahmud Monday urged people to vote for the Sundarbans to bring it in the list of world's seven wonders in forest category, reports BSS.
World heritage Sundarbans now at 28th position in the list, competing with Brazil's Amazon and 150 million to 200 million more votes are required to bring the world heritage in the Directory of Seven Wonders, he told.
Dr Mahmud also said that he recently talked to the West Bengal Chief Minister to encourage Indian people to vote for the Sundarbans of which 45 per cent area is in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment and Forests in a meeting at Khulna Circuit House last week discussed the issue and decided to expedite the campaign.
One of the objectives of the meeting was to focus on the Sundarbans and draw attention of people to promote the mangrove forests particularly renowned for one of the wild species, the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Sundari tree. The UN declared the forest as one of the world heritage in 1995.
The parliamentary standing committee also discussed the government decisions for strengthening the Department of Environment (DoE) to deal with the environment related issues more effectively.
Dr Hasan Mahmud said that his ministry had taken decision to set up office of DoE outside divisional headquarters where industrial growth was taking place very swiftly. "Primarily, we had decided to establish DoE offices in Narsingdi, Gazipur and Narayanganj to help the areas to sustain growth environmentally", he said.
He also said that the existing manpower of the DoE would be enhanced by three times and more 470 officials and employees would be recruited for the news offices and fill the present vacant posts in the DoE.
About the Buriganga cleaning programme, he said the pilot project might have many faults and drawbacks. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) under the Shipping Ministry is the implementing agency of the project being funded from Climate Change Trust Fund of the MoEF.
A site has already been selected in Savar to discharge the wastes, he said adding the pilot project would help taking more effective schemes in future to save the Buriganga, Turag and other rivers around Dhaka as well as other regions of the country.
World heritage Sundarbans now at 28th position in the list, competing with Brazil's Amazon and 150 million to 200 million more votes are required to bring the world heritage in the Directory of Seven Wonders, he told.
Dr Mahmud also said that he recently talked to the West Bengal Chief Minister to encourage Indian people to vote for the Sundarbans of which 45 per cent area is in the Indian state of West Bengal.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Ministry of Environment and Forests in a meeting at Khulna Circuit House last week discussed the issue and decided to expedite the campaign.
One of the objectives of the meeting was to focus on the Sundarbans and draw attention of people to promote the mangrove forests particularly renowned for one of the wild species, the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Sundari tree. The UN declared the forest as one of the world heritage in 1995.
The parliamentary standing committee also discussed the government decisions for strengthening the Department of Environment (DoE) to deal with the environment related issues more effectively.
Dr Hasan Mahmud said that his ministry had taken decision to set up office of DoE outside divisional headquarters where industrial growth was taking place very swiftly. "Primarily, we had decided to establish DoE offices in Narsingdi, Gazipur and Narayanganj to help the areas to sustain growth environmentally", he said.
He also said that the existing manpower of the DoE would be enhanced by three times and more 470 officials and employees would be recruited for the news offices and fill the present vacant posts in the DoE.
About the Buriganga cleaning programme, he said the pilot project might have many faults and drawbacks. Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) under the Shipping Ministry is the implementing agency of the project being funded from Climate Change Trust Fund of the MoEF.
A site has already been selected in Savar to discharge the wastes, he said adding the pilot project would help taking more effective schemes in future to save the Buriganga, Turag and other rivers around Dhaka as well as other regions of the country.