Illegal brick kiln chimneys belching smoke freely
Huge logs being used as firewood in Jhenidah ignoring law
Huge amount of logs are piled on the premises of an unlicensed brick kiln in Jessore as callous people continue using trees as firewood for baking bricks, defying environmental laws. Photo: STAR
A staggering 70 of the 80 brick kilns in Jhenidah district are running without license. Thousands of trees, mostly from forests, are destroyed daily during the brick production season as the brick kilns are using huge logs as firewood, ignoring the existing law. Investigation reveals that only 10 of the 80 brick kilns have license while only three or four owners are abiding by all the rules and regulations. Those few owners claimed that it is tough to abide by all the rules as production cost is high. Brick kiln association sources said brick production season lasts from February to June every year. Generally a brick kiln having a single-chimney brick kiln produces 27/28 lakh bricks in each season and a two-chimney brick kiln produces 50 lakh bricks. Two thousand maunds of wood is needed to burn one lakh bricks and accordingly, one lakh maunds of wood is needed to burn 50 lakh bricks, they said, adding that one crore maunds of wood is needed to burn bricks in the district each season. Brick kilns should not be set up without the permission of Directorate of Environment, said District Forest Officer Gias Uddin. A 120-feet high chimney is needed to run a brick kiln and no brick kiln should be set up in a crop land or in the village. But most of the brick kilns are flouting the rules, the forest official said. Asked why no action is taken for flouting the rules, forest department officials said they do not have sufficient manpower. Visiting different areas of Jessore district, this correspondent found that several brick kilns in Jhenidah Sadar, Kaliganj and Moheshpur upazilas do not have proper chimney or no chimney at all. As most of the brick kilns are situated in densely populated areas, many people are affected with respiratory diseases due to emission of toxic gases from the burning fileds. Children are the worst sufferers and most of them suffer from lungs disease, said Dr Abu Bakar Siddique of district civil surgeon's office. Wishing anonymity, a few officials of district and upazila administration said they fail to take action against the illegal brick kiln owners due to interference by influential ruling party leaders.
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