A team of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change visited Akbar Shah area of Chattogram city where hills are frequently cut and conducted a drive there against hill cutting on Tuesday.
As the interim government was being formed and the police stations were not fully activated, some miscreants took the chance and started cutting hills in various areas of Chattogram during night. Akbar Shah area of Chattogram city is one of those areas.
Additional Secretary of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry Dr Fahmida Khanam led the drive. Director of Chattogram Department of Environment Md Hasan Hasibur, departmental and district level senior officials of the Department of Environment, top officials of the district administration and police administration were present at that time.
Two people were caught red handed who were cutting hill during the visit. Hoes and sickles were found with them at that time.
While being interrogated, they said they were cutting the soil of hill for cultivating vegetables by the order of the land owner. The duo was fined under Mobile Court Act 2009 and Environment Conservation Act at that time. One of the was fined Tk 5,000, with three days of imprisonment without labour if fails to pay the fine, and the other one was fined Tk 10,000, with 10 days of imprisonment without labour if fails to pay the fine.
During the awareness speech, the Additional Secretary said the government has adopted zero tolerance policy to prevent hill cutting. If houses are built by cutting hills, landslide occurs during heavy rain and many people die from landslide as result. In addition, legislation has been passed to conserve 30 percent of water and land under the Bio-Diversity Framework by 2030 to protect the biodiversity of the world. Taking all these into consideration, the government has taken a strict stance against hill cutting. Any pond, river or water body cannot be filled and in the same way the soil of the hill cannot be cut. Even if a hill is privately owned, the owner cannot cut the soil of the hill.
Additional Secretary Dr Fahmida Khanam ordered those who built houses by cutting hills to move on their own responsibilities within the next seven days. Otherwise they will be removed through legal process, said the Additional Secretary.
