Mintu Deshwara

Once upon a time, there were ever-flowing streams running through the Satchhari National Park.

After Gazipur and Dulahazra, the forest department has finalised plans to build the country’s third safari park in Lathitila forest, located in Moulvibazar’s Juri upazila.

The river is called Sutki. It flows at least 20 kilometres after originating from the Kushiara river in Lohajuri area under Baniachong upazila in Habiganj before falling into the Ratna river at Pratabpur of the same upazila.

A family of four – with physical disability – belonging to the Mahato community, has received a new house, two sheep, two months' food stock and cash assistance.

Juri has been robbed of its beauty.

There’s a haat in Moulvibazar where all the sellers are women. Aptly called “Kainya”, the haat is gradually gaining popularity among local buyers and sellers.

Women tea workers not only play a vital role in their industry, they’re also the rocks of their family’s economic fortunes. But for all the work that they do, they are plagued by malnutrition, stigma, financial uncertainty, lack of awareness regarding gender issues and lack of hygiene.

Although flocks of birds could be seen roaming around the watchtower of Baikka Beel once upon a time, presently, the numbers have drastically reduced.

Noria village falls under Kagabala union in Moulvibazar Sadar upazila, but it differs from most other villages due to the atrocities that took place there during the Liberation War. The “Noria genocide” is a part of history that reminds us of the horrors of the nine-month war that started in this very month of March.

For a group of people whose most members haven’t even gone to school, many tea workers of the country are forced to maintain official communication with their employers in English.

Samra Soura, 85, the oldest resident of Soura village is forgetting his mother tongue. People of the Soura community mostly speak Bangla, Oriya and Sadri languages.

About 1,000 acres of land is lying uncultivated due to lack of irrigation facilities in Kawadighi haor of Moulvibazar Sadar upazila.

Once, Rupaichhara government hills in Habiganj used to be around 500 feet high. Due to sand extraction and tree felling, they now stand on the verge of extinction.

The government has recently started listing beneficiaries for a special programme to improve the lives and livelihoods of tea workers of the country, under the “Cha Sramikder Jibanman Unnayan Karmasuchi” scheme.

Even though everything came to a halt during the pandemic, hill cutting didn’t.

Most of the students at Sreemangal’s Daluchhara Government Primary School are members of the Tripura community.

People of greater Sylhet and Chittagong Hill Tracts regions are familiar with domesticated elephants being used to pull trees down the hills, in circuses and at various social events.

“I can’t pay the rent of the house in which my daughter and I live. The landlord called us and insulted us for nonpayment. Now, I don’t see any alternative to committing suicide,” Birangana Shila Guha said.

Bone-chilling cold and thick fog hit the poor tea workers hard in Sylhet division as hundreds, mostly children and elderly, have been suffering from different cold-related diseases due to the cold spell for the last few days.

Non-agricultural use of land especially for the development purpose has recently seen a sharp increase in Sylhet division. By filling croplands, houses, roads, buildings and business establishments are being built in an unplanned manner.