The Bangladesh Nature Conservation Alliance (BNCA) has threatened to go to court seeking legal action if the authorities concerned do not take action to stop encroachment of the DIT Pond at Gendaria in Old Dhaka.
In a statement issued on Saturday (June 3) signed by BNCA’s member secretary Muhammad Anowarul Hoque, the alliance of environmental organisations also criticised the police for denying permission to hold a human chain in support of saving the pond.
They protested the silent role of the police in addressing the harassment of environmental activists by encroachers.
The convenor of the alliance Prof Dr Ahmed Kamruzzaman Majumder was harassed by the encroachers as the leaders of environmental organisations went there to join a human chain on Friday organised by the locals to demand government action to protect the pond from encroachment, said the statement.
However, police did not take any action when the encroachers were harassing Kamruzzaman Majumder and other environmentalists, it added.
The BNCA highlighted their efforts to safeguard the pond and emphasised that there are currently only 24 ponds remaining in Old Dhaka. The DIT project pond, being one of the significant reservoirs, serves multiple purposes such as temperature control, fire control, preservation of underground water resources, and mitigation of air pollution. However, according to media reports, the pond has been occupied since 2017.