Man-made threats posed to Sunderbans

The world's biggest mangrove forest Sundarbans, located on about 38,000 square kilometres in south-western Bangladesh, is a unique place. The forest is indeed a nature's gift to Bangladesh but sadly, the country is yet to rise up to the occasion to realise its significance. Called a Queen of Nature, the Sundarbans spans over thousands of meandering streams, creeks, rivers and estuaries adding to its exquisite charm.
In the vast forest, the lofty treetops form an unbroken canopy for miles and miles, while nearer the ground, works of high and ebb-tide marked on the soil and tree trunks and the many varieties of the natural mangrove forest have much to offer to an inquisitive visitor.
If managed well, the Sundarbans could be a treasure trove for the country. It could fetch a significant amount of money if eco-friendly tourism or green tourism could be developed there. There could be regulated package tours with one or two days of night halt on the rivers criss-crossing the forest, backed by strict security networks.
But all is not well in the Sundarbans. One disaster after another from oil spillage to rampant poaching is sapping its vibrant life.   
Five incidents of utter neglect and apathy towards the forest have triggered deep concern among environmentalists as well as the people of the country.
The latest was the capsize of a fertiliser-carrying cargo vessel in the Bhola River at Sarankhola range of the Sundarbans West Zone last week. The vessel carrying about 200 tonnes of potassium fertiliser could not be salvaged even after seven days of the incident. The toxic chemical fertiliser might have got mixed into the water of a vast area posing a severe threat to the mangrove ecosystem.
Only the other day, the Forest Department officials arrested a poacher and recovered 157 tiger bones and a skull of a tiger at North Shonatal village in Sarankhola sub-district of southern Bagerhat district. The village is adjacent to the Sundarbans.
Besides, the forest officials also recovered a rope of nylon used for catching deer from his house. During preliminary interrogation, the poacher said he had killed a tiger in the Sundarbans a few months back and then kept the tiger bones and skull for selling. He and his brothers had long been involved in poaching tigers and deer. In January last, members of the elite security force Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested three poachers and recovered tiger skin, skull, 29 teeth and 24 bones from their possession.
The latest seizure of tiger bones lends credence to recent findings that the tiger population in Bangladesh part of the Sundarbans has dropped alarmingly. There were 450 Royal Bengal Tigers in the Sundarbans, according to 2010 census but the tiger population is much below now.
The dangerous oil spillage in the Shelka River had caused serious damage to the Sundarbans ecologically. Mammals in rivers criss-crossing the forest died in thousands while such oil pollution poisoned water that might have been sucked by trees of the forest.   
The government needs to make an independent appraisal of dangers to be posed by the planned coal-based thermal power plant at Rampal with the capacity of producing 1,320 MW of electricity. The plant will be located only 9 km away from the Sundarbans, and will cover 1,834 acres of land. The government might have been misguided on the location of the project on the ground that it is at a 'safe' distance from the mangrove forest.
But experts have said, the proposed plant will require 13,000 tons of coal. This huge amount of coal will have to be transported through the Possur river that runs deep into the Sundarbans and flows around its adjacent areas. Large ships carrying coal, turbines, compressors, pumps, generators and cooling towers of the power plant will create a lot of sound, which will inevitably have a fatal effect on the biodiversity of the forest.
Experts say, the power plant will require withdrawal of 9,150 cubic meter of water per hour from the Possur river for its functioning. The extraction of such massive volume of water will undoubtedly mess up the natural organisms of the river systems of Sibsha and Possur that provide the lifeline to the Sundarbans. In addition to this, the proposed plant will have a coal stockyard and a dust disposal pond along the boundary of the Possur river.
Experts said, it is difficult to imagine what will happen to the river when a 'mountain' of more than seven hundred thousand tons of fly-ash and two hundred thousand tons of bottom ash are released as soon as the plant starts functioning. These contain hazardous and toxic chemicals such as arsenic, mercury, lead, nickel, and radium. There will also be regular emission of some 142 tons of sulphur dioxide and 85 tons of nitrogen dioxide. So many toxic substances are enough to slowly eat up the world's largest mangrove forest.
The country will lose one of its greatest assets if the Sundarbans slowly goes extinct due to sheer negligence and lack of attention it merits. Therefore, preservation of the Sundarbans should not be the subject of only environmentalists' concern; the entire nation has to worry about its sustainability owing to man-made hazards..  
The forest, a UNESCO Heritage Site, has been serving as a living and most effective natural fence protecting the coastal belt areas. It indeed saved us from the devastation of cyclones Sidr and Aila in the recent past. It is the forest that offers various sources of livelihood to more than five hundred thousand local inhabitants.
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