Country's biggest theme park raises ugly questions about arable land use
Monday, 29 September 2008
Mushir Ahmed back from Rangpur
KHOLEA (Gangachara), Sept 28: From the main highway, the decorated gate of the ‘Vinya Jagat’ looks like any other doors of big tobacco companies swarming this part of the country for decades.
But as one peeps through, the area covering nearly 100 acres looks like a real Different World, with massive concrete dinosaurs, kangaroos and royal bengal tigers greeting the people to what its little-known owner said the country's biggest theme park, now under construction.
Stralling among the rides, novotheater, coloured bridges on the ponds and the twelve-feet long open mouth of a 'monster' laying on the grass, one cannot but applaud the owner's audacity of creating such a huge project on one of Bangladesh's poorest region.
His audacity, however, has lately drawn sharp reactions at Gangachara - the area better known for its perennial river erosion and near famine condition during this time of the year.
The villagers and low level officials have started to question turning this prime agricultural land into a theme park, when hunger is rampant here and people have to travel all over the country searching for work.
With 400,000 people living on 280 square kilomteres area, Gangachara in Rangpur is one of the poorest region in the country. People here become newspaper headlines all the wrong reasons.
To the journalists, Gangachara is known as the Monga capital, a near famine like situation which ravages the region during late rainy season.
Villagers at Kholea union said despite Monga fame, Vinya Jagat is expanding its boundary every year, taking in more fertile land and building rampart to mark boundary.
"Already, almost half the land of this field has been eaten up by the theme park," said Majid, an angry villager, showing of stretch of the paddyfield gobbled up by the theme park.
Majid, who is using different name, has been offered a 'very good amount' to sell his one bigha land to the the Park, but he has so far resisted its sell.
"If I sell my land, I will have to migrate to slums in Dhaka. A lot of people have sold their land out of greed and are now landless and penniless," he said.
Like Majid scores of villagers at Kholea Union have been offered to sell their land to the Theme Park at a premium price -- nearly two times higher than normal, price.
But more land sell would mean the whole area would only turn into stretch of homesteads and park, without any land to cultivate food.
"The union chairman is working as a broker for the owner and a lot of us are now under pressure to sell our ancestral land," said another villager.
Local water development officials said the theme park is being built on the best agricultural land in the region.
"A canal from the river Teesta flows through the area, which ensures water supply throughout the year. Farmers here cultivate three crops a year," an official said.
The officials questioned wasting of such a huge amount of fertile land for a theme park, when the country faces food crisis every year.
"This land is gold, whereas the park Kamal Shaheb is building hardly draws any crowd. It does not have any economic significance," he said.
"There are lot of fallow land in north Bengal. Why did not he build the theme park there?" he said.
SA Kamal, who migrated to Rangpur in late 1990s and started buying land in the early 2001, is the owner of the park. He said cheap landprice prompted him to target this area.
"Already, we have bought nearly 100 acres of land. My aim is to buy another 200 acres to make it into the country's biggest theme park," he said.
Under his massive plan, Vinya Jagat will soon have a cricket ground for night matches, concrete ponds full of coloured fishes, resorts and a mini gold course.
His company has invested some Tk300 million into the project including finacing from banks. He was ready to spend as much as he can for transform this area into his dream project.
"We have yet to woo big crowd here. But if we can complete the project, people will visit Vinya Jagat from all over the country," he added.
He defended using fertile land for achieve his goal.
"So far, I haven't seen any protest from anyone. The farmers are getting better prices. Besides, in exchange for their land at Kholea, we buy them land in other areas," he said.
District commissioner Mohammad Abdul Ahad told the FE that the authorities have yet to receive complaints from any farmers.
"I am relatively new here. I also haven't seen the park yet," he said, adding they would now see whether the land use for theme park was Ok under the country's land policy.
Land secretary Moniruzzaman Khan admitted that "purchase of huge tracks of land" by companies was now a growing reality in the country.
"But unless we have comprehensive surveys about the state of our land, we cannot do anything," he said.
The government has just started a nationwide survey on proper landuse, he said, adding he would also investigate the cases like Vinya Jagat after its completion.
Experts have warned that the trend of buying prime cultivable land for industrial or speculative use has emerged as a big threat to future of agriculture.
"It's a dangerous trend. It may ruin future of our agricultural growth," said Mahbub Hossain, executive director of Brac.
"Thousands of people are buying fertile land for speculation and for setting up factories. Many keep the land fallow for years, believing that the price would double within two to three years," Hossain, an ex-IRRI official said.
"Companies are also buying land mindlessly, without thinking that Bangladesh doesn't have enough land," he said.
He said the government should intervene 'now' and 'without haste' to make a policy for land use in Bangladesh.
"Otherwise, millions of poor farmers would have no land in the near future," he said.
Whether the government is listening to the Brac chief or not, people of Gangachara are already suffering.
For years, people like Majid fought natural disasters such as river erosion with grit, but now they have to deal with something they were not prepared for.
"Everyone in Rangpur thinks the park is a very good thing for us. We'll get jobs and whole of Kholea will be different," he said.
"But after the start of Vinya Jagat seven years back, I've only seen landless people migrating to slums in the capital."
KHOLEA (Gangachara), Sept 28: From the main highway, the decorated gate of the ‘Vinya Jagat’ looks like any other doors of big tobacco companies swarming this part of the country for decades.
But as one peeps through, the area covering nearly 100 acres looks like a real Different World, with massive concrete dinosaurs, kangaroos and royal bengal tigers greeting the people to what its little-known owner said the country's biggest theme park, now under construction.
Stralling among the rides, novotheater, coloured bridges on the ponds and the twelve-feet long open mouth of a 'monster' laying on the grass, one cannot but applaud the owner's audacity of creating such a huge project on one of Bangladesh's poorest region.
His audacity, however, has lately drawn sharp reactions at Gangachara - the area better known for its perennial river erosion and near famine condition during this time of the year.
The villagers and low level officials have started to question turning this prime agricultural land into a theme park, when hunger is rampant here and people have to travel all over the country searching for work.
With 400,000 people living on 280 square kilomteres area, Gangachara in Rangpur is one of the poorest region in the country. People here become newspaper headlines all the wrong reasons.
To the journalists, Gangachara is known as the Monga capital, a near famine like situation which ravages the region during late rainy season.
Villagers at Kholea union said despite Monga fame, Vinya Jagat is expanding its boundary every year, taking in more fertile land and building rampart to mark boundary.
"Already, almost half the land of this field has been eaten up by the theme park," said Majid, an angry villager, showing of stretch of the paddyfield gobbled up by the theme park.
Majid, who is using different name, has been offered a 'very good amount' to sell his one bigha land to the the Park, but he has so far resisted its sell.
"If I sell my land, I will have to migrate to slums in Dhaka. A lot of people have sold their land out of greed and are now landless and penniless," he said.
Like Majid scores of villagers at Kholea Union have been offered to sell their land to the Theme Park at a premium price -- nearly two times higher than normal, price.
But more land sell would mean the whole area would only turn into stretch of homesteads and park, without any land to cultivate food.
"The union chairman is working as a broker for the owner and a lot of us are now under pressure to sell our ancestral land," said another villager.
Local water development officials said the theme park is being built on the best agricultural land in the region.
"A canal from the river Teesta flows through the area, which ensures water supply throughout the year. Farmers here cultivate three crops a year," an official said.
The officials questioned wasting of such a huge amount of fertile land for a theme park, when the country faces food crisis every year.
"This land is gold, whereas the park Kamal Shaheb is building hardly draws any crowd. It does not have any economic significance," he said.
"There are lot of fallow land in north Bengal. Why did not he build the theme park there?" he said.
SA Kamal, who migrated to Rangpur in late 1990s and started buying land in the early 2001, is the owner of the park. He said cheap landprice prompted him to target this area.
"Already, we have bought nearly 100 acres of land. My aim is to buy another 200 acres to make it into the country's biggest theme park," he said.
Under his massive plan, Vinya Jagat will soon have a cricket ground for night matches, concrete ponds full of coloured fishes, resorts and a mini gold course.
His company has invested some Tk300 million into the project including finacing from banks. He was ready to spend as much as he can for transform this area into his dream project.
"We have yet to woo big crowd here. But if we can complete the project, people will visit Vinya Jagat from all over the country," he added.
He defended using fertile land for achieve his goal.
"So far, I haven't seen any protest from anyone. The farmers are getting better prices. Besides, in exchange for their land at Kholea, we buy them land in other areas," he said.
District commissioner Mohammad Abdul Ahad told the FE that the authorities have yet to receive complaints from any farmers.
"I am relatively new here. I also haven't seen the park yet," he said, adding they would now see whether the land use for theme park was Ok under the country's land policy.
Land secretary Moniruzzaman Khan admitted that "purchase of huge tracks of land" by companies was now a growing reality in the country.
"But unless we have comprehensive surveys about the state of our land, we cannot do anything," he said.
The government has just started a nationwide survey on proper landuse, he said, adding he would also investigate the cases like Vinya Jagat after its completion.
Experts have warned that the trend of buying prime cultivable land for industrial or speculative use has emerged as a big threat to future of agriculture.
"It's a dangerous trend. It may ruin future of our agricultural growth," said Mahbub Hossain, executive director of Brac.
"Thousands of people are buying fertile land for speculation and for setting up factories. Many keep the land fallow for years, believing that the price would double within two to three years," Hossain, an ex-IRRI official said.
"Companies are also buying land mindlessly, without thinking that Bangladesh doesn't have enough land," he said.
He said the government should intervene 'now' and 'without haste' to make a policy for land use in Bangladesh.
"Otherwise, millions of poor farmers would have no land in the near future," he said.
Whether the government is listening to the Brac chief or not, people of Gangachara are already suffering.
For years, people like Majid fought natural disasters such as river erosion with grit, but now they have to deal with something they were not prepared for.
"Everyone in Rangpur thinks the park is a very good thing for us. We'll get jobs and whole of Kholea will be different," he said.
"But after the start of Vinya Jagat seven years back, I've only seen landless people migrating to slums in the capital."