Mindless sand lifting triggers serious erosion in Habiganj
Erosion by Jadukata River along 50 villages in Tahirpur upazila has taken a serious turn with the onset of rainy season.
The villagers are passing sleepless nights in the fear that the river may devour their homesteads making them homeless anytime.
The worst affected villages are Lourergor and Ghagotia which may go into the river any moment.
Locals said the erosion, triggered first by illegal sand and stone lifting by sand traders, has started devouring homesteads and crop lands of 50 villages including Chakbazar, Ghagra, Rajargaon, Binnakuli, Lamashram, Barotek, Pathanpara, Sohala, Dakkhinkul, Patari, Garokati, Adarshagram, Miarchar, Lourergor, Anwarpur Bazar and Ghagotia.
Thousands of people who live in those villages alleged that the erosion took a severe turn recently following cutting of earth from riverbank by a section of traders to extract sand and stone.
A villager of Lourergor said the traders have been lifting sand and stone from the river for the last 20 years but authorities are not taking any step to stop this illegal trade.
Adarshagram villagers said constant lifting of sand from Jadukati has almost made the river sandless.
As sand and stones disappeared mostly, the traders turned on the riverbanks and started cutting earth to collect sand, inhabitants of Dakkhinkul village said.
They have been cutting earth from riverbanks for the last five years as authorities turned a deaf ear, they alleged.
“As a result, the river is losing its foreshore and erosion intensified threatening at least 50 villages”, they said.
Jadukati, a tributary of Yang River in China which flows across Bangladesh through India's Meghalaya state was 200-feet wide in winter and about 44-feet in rainy season 20 years ago.
It now becomes 5,000 feet wide in rainy season because of lifting of sand and cutting of river bank by sand lifters over the last couple of decades, local administration officials said.
Upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) Mohammad Anwar Hossain told the news agency that the river has been eroding both banks threatening homesteads and crop lands of the villagers.
Sand and stone are being lifted and earth being removed rampantly and illegally, he admitted saying the matter will be placed before the higher authorities for action soon.
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