Losing nature, confronting reality
Shahid Alam goes travelling in the hills
The Chittagong Hill TractsMan-Nature Nexus Torn
Philip Gain (ed)
Society for Environment and
Human Development For a variety of reasons, not the least as a poster case (often, literally) for nature's degradation by man and the related plight of the indigenous people, the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has attracted its share of attention from scholars, researchers, and activists from Bangladesh and the outside world. A partial list, with brief accounts of their contents, of books, reports, and documentary films relating to CHT are included in The Chittagong Hill Tracts: Man-Nature Nexus Torn, edited by Philip Gain, Director of the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), and an adjunct faculty of the Department of Media and Communication, Independent University, Bangladesh. Gain is a veteran of the study of CHT and other areas of Bangladesh in the context of environmental issues, and has called upon 30 writers (including himself) to discuss 27 chapters that make up the volume. One of the articles deals with the abridged contents of the books, reports, and documentaries referred to above, while another provides a useful glossary of concepts and theories related to the subject matter. A number of the contributors are students, while a few others are seasoned in the fields of the CHT and the environment, like Haroun Er Rashid, Jenneke Arens, Philip Gain, Devasish Roy, M. Monirul H. Khan, and Ronald Halder, but all of whom, according to the editor, "are passionate about the ecology and the indigenous peoples of the CHT ("Preface"). An undercurrent of despair, passionate appeal, urgency, even suppressed anger and latent hopelessness runs through almost all the articles in the book. Gain sets the tone at the very beginning: "The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has lost its majestic look. Once part of a mega-diversity zone in South Asia, the region is now faced with an ecological disaster…. The Kaptai Dam, Karnaphuli Paper Mill (KPM) and other 'development icons' manifest concrete evidences of the ecological devastation today" ("Preface"). Haroun Er Rashid ("Geography and Environment") composes a succinct informative account of CHT's geographical features and environment, and draws attention to the dangers that human intervention has potentially, as well as in point of fact, caused to the region. Gain ("The Chittagong Hill Tracts: An Ecological Disaster") reinforces, and adds to, Rashid. Gain, for example, comes up with these straightforward observations: "The presence of the (Bangladeshi) military in every corner of the CHT not only indicates…massive human rights abuses…but also…ecological disaster." Jenneke Arens ("Militarization of the CHT and Its Impact on the People") explores this point through taking recourse to history from the so-called 1900 Regulation of the British raj that provided the area with a special administrative status and restricted further settlement of Bangali plainspeople in the hills, to that of the Ayub Khan regime, which abolished CHT's special status in 1964, to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who rejected the indigenous peoples' demand for regional autonomy, retention of the 1990 Regulation and a ban on the influx of Bangalis, and, further, asked them to forget their ethnic identity and be Bangalis. His decision led to the indigenous people forming the political organization Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS) in 1972, and, the following year, its armed wing, the Shanti Bahini. General Ziaur Rahman then ordered full militarization of the CHT and the settlement of large numbers of landless plain Bangalis in the hill region, which prompted the Shanti Bahini to launch its first armed attack on a military outpost in 1976. General H. M. Ershad not only maintained that policy, but was also instrumental in instituting large-scale corruption in relation to the region and the governmental activities there. Eventually, on 2 December 1997, a peace accord was signed between the PCJSS and the government headed by Sheikh Hasina. It prompted the BNP and the Bangali settlers to categorize the accord as a sell-out, while a section of the indigenous people also rejected it on different grounds. Arens comments on the aftermath: "The Peace Accord…still remains largely unimplemented…. The army remains the de-facto ruler in the CHT, Bangalis continue to settle and serious human rights violations are still taking place." And, on another worrying note, Arens finds, "Companies (private) have also illegally bought thousands of acres of land in the CHT, such as the Islamic organization Muhammadiya Jamia Sharif (known as the Laden group)…." The author sums up: "Not only the livelihoods, but also the cultures of the indigenous people, their language, collective spirit, dress, festivals, cultural and religious expression, are slowly being destroyed…this has resulted in the erosion of many traditional values…. They are becoming more individualistic, the collective spirit is eroding, and class divisions are increasing." Roy is skeptical regarding the interest of the supra-national entities: "The relevant policies of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank…on the matter of forestry and on the subject of indigenous peoples, do not favour the strengthening of traditional resource rights." Nor is he confident of redress in the international forum: "An initial draft…adopted by the UN Sub-Commission on Human Rights in 1994…contains many crucial provisions on indigenous peoples' collective and individual rights, including traditional rights over forests and other commons. A small number of rich and powerful industrialized countries, ironically enough, also being those who carry the legacies of a history of colonization and oppression of indigenous peoples, continue to stand in the way of such adoption, with strong reservation towards collective rights, among others." That should not have come as a surprise. Tahmid Huq Easher ("Water --- Scarce in the CHT") deals with the perennial water scarcity in the region, and the positive outcome of the construction of two reservoirs and seven supply points by the Green Hill organization that has alleviated the situation to a fair extent. Shekhar Kanti Ray and Md. Safiullah Safi ("Stone Mining in Bandarban: Hill Villagers Go in Water Crisis") focus on the multifarious debilitating effects of stone mining on the locals. One wonders if the horse of reversal of the steady decline in CHT and indigenous peoples' fortunes has not already bolted. It seems that only damage control is the option for the near future as the overall situation in CHT cannot realistically be expected to go back to the pre-1960 days. The writers have brought out the plight of the hill communities, at times idealistically, not to say even unrealistically in a few instances, but, nonetheless, with passion and conviction. Many of the writings are pedestrian at best, but that should not detract from the value of The Chittagong Hill Tracts: Man-Nature Nexus Torn" in highlighting a complex set of issues that have, more often than not, negatively affected the indigenous people of the region. Prof. Shahid Alam --- critic, actor, former diplomat --- is Head, Media and Communication, Independent University.
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