‘Legalising’ illegal sand mining
In the last five years, local influential people have raked in Tk 180 crore by ripping apart Fasiakhali and Fulchhari forests using a lease document, which Forest Department has repeatedly been trying to get cancelled, but in vain.
26 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Chakaria Sundarbans nears extinction as shrimp farming takes over
If you cruise through the Ujantia canal up to its estuary with the Matamuhuri river of Cox’s Bazar, you will see the last remnants of a mangrove forest, almost obliterated from the country’s south-eastern landscape.
20 March 2022, 18:00 PM
Visiting Sundarbans just got costlier
The government has revised fees in the Sundarbans after a decade, doubling it for both local and foreign tourists and for people whose livelihoods depend on it.
5 March 2022, 18:00 PM
No country for elephants
As if it wasn’t hard enough for elephants to survive in this country, in a tragic development, it was discovered that they are not just dying by electrocution. Shooting down the animals straight up has become seemingly rampant to protect encroached forest lands.
2 March 2022, 18:00 PM
When land costs more than just money
On an unfortunate morning in April 2009, Kabir Ahmed and his wife were working in the backyard of their home in Patenga of port city. All of a sudden, an altercation over land broke out in front of them. At one point, some people swooped on a youth and hacked him with machetes.
24 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Senior secretary pulled strings
Sacked ACC officer Sharif Uddin said the senior secretary of a ministry, who had links to the land acquisition scammers in Cox’s Bazar, used his influence to get him fired from his job.
21 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Praised until he stepped on toes
A skilled and judicious officer, who is well experienced in investigation. He is worthy of promotion.
19 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Whose side is ACC on?
Over the last three years, Sharif Uddin painstakingly enquired and investigated corruption allegations and recommended the Anti-Corruption Commission file 22 graft cases against various individuals and quarters in Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar.
18 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Chemical stores, Plastic factories: Long wait for relocation
The government’s move to relocate hazardous chemical warehouses and plastic factories from the congested neighbourhoods of Old Dhaka remains in limbo, 11 years after the initiative was taken in the aftermath of the Nimtoli inferno.
16 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Single-use plastic: Coastal areas still littered with them
The Department of Environment has failed to comply with a High Court directive that asked it to stop the use of single-use plastic in hotels, motels, and restaurants of coastal areas in two years.
5 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Forestland at the mercy of powerful gangs
After damaging two canals by building dams and extracting their sands, a local syndicate linked to the ruling party is now tearing apart a wildlife sanctuary by scooping out sand from it and topsoil from adjacent arable land in Dulahazara union of Chakaria upazila in Cox’s Bazar.
4 February 2022, 18:00 PM
Air quality in districts: Cleanest in Madaripur, worst in Gazipur
Gazipur has the most polluted air out of 64 districts in Bangladesh and Madaripur the least, found a recent study.
3 February 2022, 18:00 PM
38 days of fresh air in 6 years
Residents of the capital have inhaled clean air for only 38 days in the last six years, found a study, highlighting the gravity of the air pollution that over two crore people of the city are exposed to every day.
27 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Dhaka air pollution: Tejgaon industrial area tops the list
The air quality of 10 significant areas in the capital scored below standard throughout 2021, according to a study of the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies of the Department of Environmental Science at Stamford University.
26 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Painting a river black
The level of pollutants in the Buriganga water samples taken from some dyeing factory effluent release points is much higher than standard levels, found a study.
18 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Buriganga suffering, Dhaleshwari worse off
The water quality of the Buriganga continues to be poor even though it has been almost five years since the tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh area were relocated to an estate in Hemayetpur of Savar.
11 January 2022, 18:00 PM
Kuhelia river turns into a narrow stream, thanks to earth-filling by RHD
The Roads and Highways Department has earth-filled about 26 acres of the Kuhelia river in Cox’s Bazar to build a two-lane road.
7 January 2022, 18:00 PM
BSCIC wants 214 acres of Sal forest
The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation is looking to turn 214 acres of Madhupur Sal Forest into an industrial park.
19 December 2021, 18:00 PM
Matarbari Coal-Fired Plants: Nature sacrificed for power
When countries around the world are phasing out coal-based power plants, the Bangladesh government has planned eight such projects in Maheshkhali of Cox’s Bazar despite their potential adverse impacts in and around the coastal belt.
16 November 2021, 18:00 PM
Status of Shipbreaking Industry: BELA serves legal notice seeking cancellation of change
Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association yesterday served legal notice on the authorities concerned seeking cancellation of the status change of Chattogram’s harmful shipbreaking industry from red to orange.
14 November 2021, 18:00 PM