‘Environment People’, an environmental voluntary organization, has written a memorandum to Cox's Bazar deputy commissioner and chairman of the district river protection committee demanding 13-point protection of Bakkhali River and Paraban (beach forest) in Cox's Bazar city and implementation of court order. A delegation led by Rashedul Majid, Chief Executive of Environment People, handed over the memorandum to Deputy Commissioner Md Mamunur Rashid at Cox's Bazar Deputy Commissioner's Office on Friday morning. Meanwhile, the deputy commissioner has directed to bring those involved in river occupation and Parabon destruction under the law by arresting them immediately. At the same time, he promised to protect the river and the adjacent forest. Earlier, the organization carried out various programmes including letter, river inspection, human chain in various government departments to protect the river and Paraban. Sirajul Islam, Nurul Hossain, Simul Kabir Chowdhury Sadman and Mohammad Hossain bin Tuhin were present during the presentation of the memorandum.
The 13-point demand for protection of river and Paraban is to stop illegal occupation of Bakkhali river, to protect Paraban and biodiversity of Bakkhali river, to protect the habitat of birds in Paraban, to stop tidal flow of river, to maintain river speed and tidal flow ,To stop the collection of rent from the naturally occurring Paraban land and to include it in the khas khatian, to stop all kinds of pollution by stopping the dumping of waste in the river To follow the policy of sand extraction, evacuation of all illegal establishments on rivers and streams, creation of paragon in them, improvement of communication system in waterways, strengthening of activities of river protection committee, demarcation of river and implementation of court orders.
It is to be noted that for the last few days, the occupiers have been cutting down thousands of trees in Paraban by filling up the tidal embankment of Bakkhali River at Kasturaghat in Cox's Bazar town.
Thousands of bird habitats were destroyed.
The construction of illegal structures is in full swing in Bakkhali River. At present, illegal occupiers are ruling over hundreds of acres of land in Bakkhali River.