Toxic gas from brick kiln affects boro paddy

Farmers of Poisafela village in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila are worried that they may not get the crop from their boro fields as the paddy plants have been badly affected by the toxic gas of a nearby brick kiln. 

Local people said that 50/60 marginal farmers had cultivated boro paddy on about100 bighas of land near a brick kiln named 'Bari Bricks'.  

Of the total cultivated land, boro crop on about 40/50 bighas was affected due to the toxic gas from the brick kiln. 
Farmers Abdur Rashid, Bozlur Rahman and several others showed sheaves of paddy that were scorched and contained no rice.
 Ekramul Haque, 55, a marginal farmer of the village, said he had cultivated boro paddy on three bighas (one bigha is equal to 33.06 acres) of land at a cost of about Tk.30,000, which he borrowed from a local NGO. But the crop was badly damaged by the toxic gas. 

Last year, the farmers had incurred huge losses as their paddy plants had been destroyed because of emission of toxic gas from the same brick kiln, farmers said. 

A large number of fruit trees, including mango, jackfruit and litchi were also affected by the toxic gas said Amirul Islam, another farmer of the village.

The farmers urged the administration to remove the brick kiln from the middle of a vast tract of crop land because it damaged crops every year. 

Several farmers said that they had observed different programmes last year, including submission of a memorandum to the deputy commissioner (DC), to stop operation of the brick kiln in the middle of the crop field. They asked for compensation for the affected farmers, but the local administration did not take any step to meet their demands.

Thakurgaon Sadar Upazila Agriculture Officer Azizul Islam told this correspondent over cell phone that he had visited the crop field last week and seen the damage to the crop due to emission of toxic gas. 

Replying to a query, he said though it was mandatory to take clearance from the local agriculture office for setting up a brick kiln, nobody had taken clearance for setting up a brick kiln at Poisafela village. 

According to the existing law, setting up of a brick kiln on agricultural land is strictly prohibited, he said.     
We asked the local UP chairman and the brick field owner to give compensation to the affected farmers. 

When contacted by this correspondent, the owner, Humayun Kabir, said the damage to the crop was not caused by the brick kiln, so there was no reason to give compensation to the farmers. He did not say what could have caused the damage.