Razing hills
The news item titled “Hill cutting on in Khagrachari defying ban” published in The Daily Star's January 12, 2008 issue has drawn my attention. It is mentioned that two hills were razed and trees were axed. The news described the fact in such a fashion that the work was a heinous crime. It was also stated that the hills were erased for making 70 new housing plots. I have been observing with concern for the last couple of years that newspapers and electronic media have been mentioning the razing of hills as detrimental to the environment. But no one has so far explained scientifically the pros and cons of cutting hills and developing plain lands in Bangladesh, at least I have not seen such rational explanation. We know that Bangladesh is an over-populated country. It could not produce even enough food for the population mainly owing to too limited farmlands. The government is considering taking farmland in Myanmar on lease to produce food for the country. Here it may be mentioned that in the adjoining areas of the eastern region of Bangladesh there are hilly & forestlands. The eastern side of Bangladesh has hilly areas and the rest are mostly plain lands. The plain lands are over populated but the hilly region is under populated. Life is very hard in the hilly region. Development work is also very costly there. Bangladesh has very limited resources to develop topographically; it experiences rain from seasonal wind in April to October, when the wind blows from the sea (that is, from south to north) and carry huge moisture. On the other hand, wind blows from east to south during the rest of the year, which is virtually dry and as a result cannot cause rain. Bangladesh experiences dry weather from November to March. So, even if all the hills of the CHT and Sylhet are razed there should not be significant change in climatic conditions in Bangladesh. The government should review the situation and repeal the Act which imposes ban on hill-razing and should encourage public & private sector to develop plain land to cater to the need for farmland.
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