Heavy vessels through the Sundarbans?
Put a stop to the outrage!
One cannot miss the irony. Two ministries are clearly working at cross purposes, one to ensure the natural appeal of the Sundarbans and the other seemingly intent on leaving the beauty of the area marred. Briefly, for the past five months the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) has been allowing large vessels carrying such goods as oil and other forms of cargo to pass through a significant canal in the Sundarbans.
The excuse the BIWTA and by extension the shipping ministry has offered is that the Ghashiakhali canal outside the forests, through which vessels going to Mongla from the Bay of Bengal used to pass, is now too silted for these vessels to use. And now with as many as 25 to 30 vessels steaming through this 60 ft wide canal inside the Sundarbans every day, it is nature and wildlife that is in danger. In case of an oil spill, the gigantic nature of the danger that could unfold can only be imagined.
The shame lies in the fact that the forest and environment ministry has been making repeated appeals, in vain, to the shipping ministry and the BIWTA to put a stop to the use of the canal by these heavy vessels. The shipping ministry and the BIWTA, rather than taking these objections into cognisance, have been coming up with some excuse or the other to justify this clear violation of the country's foremost natural habitat. The outrage being committed by the BIWTA and its parent ministry is clearly undermining the much vaunted pledge of the government to maintain and develop the environment.
We would urge the shipping ministry to rein itself in. More than that, we think the authorities should come down hard on the ministry and the BIWTA and have them vacate the Sundarbans.
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