Pinaki Roy

With only around 4.62 lakh tonnes of grains in the public food stocks, one of the lowest in years, the government has moved to procure paddy, rice and wheat from local farmers and millers at prices higher than last year’s.

People living by the Kirtonkhola river in Barishal noticed in March this year that the river’s water had become unusually salty.

Roksana Khatun moves aside dirt and floating leaves from a pond, slowly lowers her earthen pitcher into it and fills it with around 20 litres of water.

The 14 languages declared endangered over two years ago remain in various stages of decline as the number of users diminish, with experts calling for extensive measures from the government to preserve these.

Since her husband Abrahm Soreng died two years ago, 70-year-old Veronica Kerketa doesn’t get the chance to talk in her mother tongue at home. None of her children or grandchildren speak the Kharia language.

The Bhadra, once a free-flowing river in Khulna’s Dumuria upazila, has been turned into a narrow canal over the years, thanks to encroachment by brick kilns run by local influential people, including elected representatives.

A vast number of century-old trees have been felled by loggers at a remote reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary in Thanchi of Bandarban in the last two months, and as seen in satellite images, about a hundred acres of it have been totally razed over the last few years.

It was past midnight at Saidpur Rail Station. In the dim light, mostly Hindu Marwaris and some Bangalees from all walks of life could be seen standing beside the platform. Tense, even those who knew each other were not talking.

A ruling party MP has filled up more than 54 acres from the Buriganga river and wetland to construct a power plant and a private economic zone in Basila, according to a government probe report.

Coal-fired power projects are on the chopping block as the government finally plans to give up its obsession for the dirty energy over rising coal import costs and environmental concerns.

The government intends to make the country self-sufficient in onion by increasing the production of this essential cooking ingredient but it may take years as overcoming the seed crisis remains a major challenge.

So where have they gone? Despite 76,000 children being born in the camps in the last three years, the number of Rohingya refugees in all camps of Ukhiya and Teknaf has actually decreased to 8.60 lakh as of July this year.

Prolonged and multiple monsoon floods have disrupted cultivation of Aman paddy, which provides around 36 percent of total rice production in the country.

Though farmers have been hit hard by the pandemic, no special stimulus package for small farmers was announced in the proposed budget, frustrating agriculture experts and economists.

Though forests are meant to be conserved, they are being allocated for constructing highways, rail lines, government offices and even for drilling gas wells. For any development project, forestland seems to be readily available.

To ensure fair prices for Boro farmers, the government under its procurement programme should only buy paddy from the growers instead of rice from millers, a study suggested.

Cyclone Amphan has left behind a trail of destruction in the country’s coastal areas, affecting more than a million people in nine districts in Khulna and Barishal divisions.

The Sundarbans have once again proved to be the key saviour of the country in times of natural calamity as the mangrove forest absorbed the fury of Cyclone Amphan, much as it had done before with similar forces of nature.

Thousands of people have been moved to storm shelters in 19 coastal districts of the country as Cyclone Amphan is set to make landfall this evening with heavy rainfall and storm surges above 10 feet.

Cyclone Amphan was gaining pace in the Bay yesterday and may hit Bangladesh coast near the Sundarbans in the early hours of tomorrow, the met office warns.