Gas pipeline costs environment in Lawachhara Reserve Forest

A portion of the road being constructed by cutting hills in the Lawachhara Reserve Forest

The pipeline is being laid by US company Unocal to connect Magurchhara gas well with Kalachhara well to supply gas to the National Grid. After completion, 70 million cubic feet of gas will supplied daily from Magur-chhara.

The reserve forest could be avoided by laying the pipeline through Bhanugachh-Srimongol area sources claimed. The company has chosen the short-cut route through the forest to reduce cost. A seven kilometre long and 15 feet wide road is also being built through the Reserve Forest, earlier declared a National Park by the government to preserve its wildlife.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

This correspondent visited Lawachhara and Magurchhara areas in Friday and talked to administration and tea garden officials.

They alleged that trees are being felled and hills cut for the work.

Unocal has also started gas exploration work near the Magurchhara well, where a massive explosion in 1997 caused a havoc when Occidental, another US company was drilling for gas.

Unocal has brought drilling pipes, machinery and other heavy equipment at Magurchhara gas well site and is constructing a 'camp house' and a warehouse in Fulbari Tea Estate, about 200 yards from the Magurchhara well.

Construction of warehouse and camp house in the tea garden area will damage plantations and the environment there, they said.

This correspondent did not find any Unocal official at Magurchhara and Kalachhara site camps. Security personals were on duty there.

Kamalganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Azadur Rahman Mollik said Occidental was permitted to work in Fulbari Tea Estate lands and in the Lawachhara Reserve Forest. Unocal now owns Occidental's assets in Bangladesh and so it is uitlising the scope, he said.

"It is a matter to be decided by government high-ups. I am not authorised to speak", he said.

Rubin Ahmed, Assistant Manager of Fulbari Tea Estate said Unical has taken six hectors of land from his garden to construct warehouse and camp.

He said environment in the tea garden and Lawachhara Reserve Forest will be affected by this.

Kamalganj Unnyon Sangram Parishad had submitted a memorandum to the Energy Ministry through the Kamalganj UNO on February 2. Their demands include steps to save the reserve forest and its wildlife, compensation to victims of Magurchhara gas well explosion in 1997, a firm assurance that no more accident will take place during exploration and gas supply from Magurchhara to the area.

In the Lawachhara Reserve Forest, the density of trees is 200 per hectare of land.

There are 300 spices of flora, 10 spices of amphibious animals, 30 spices of reptiles and numerous monkeys in the reserve forest, environmentalists said.

Out of total 200 givons in the country, 30 are in Lawachhara. These animals are being threatened now, they said.

The reserve forest is being raked at a time when the forest department is trying to create a mass awareness to save the Lawachhara National Park (reserve forest). It has take up a project styled Nishorga to stop illegal felling of trees.

Nishorga project, funded by SAID, aims at conserving the bio-diversity in the protected areas through partnership with stakeholders. The project also include creation of wildlife sanctuaries but the objectives will frustrated, the environmentalists said.