STRUGGLE FOR ARSENIC-FREE WATER

Emran Hossain Transmission loss increased for the second consecutive year in the past financial year with a forecast suggesting further increase over next several years due to mismatched expansions in power and industrial sectors in Bangladesh. The transmission loss in the past financial year meant the loss of electricity worth more than Tk 3,200 crore, ... Read more

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Water salinity in localities after Cyclone Remal cannot be removed quickly, it will create food insecurity in the affected areas, warns the Bangladesh Environment Movement (Bapa). At a press conference at the Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) today (1 June), the organisation said it will not be possible to cultivate paddy in ... Read more

News Desk : dhakamirror.com For decades, salinity has plagued Khutikata village in Kashimari union of Shyamnagar upazila in Satkhira, making crop production nearly impossible. Despite having a flowing canal, the remote coastal village faced severe water scarcity, especially during the dry season. However, the creation of ponds on unused land is transforming the agricultural landscape. ... Read more

DAE estimates Tk 387cr worth crops loss in Midhili Emran Hossain With another cyclonic storm brewing in the Bay of Bengal, the third one in a little over a month, farmers on Bangladesh’s coast are busy harvesting their partially ripened crops, potentially losing their expected production significantly. The Department of Agricultural Extension completed its assessment ... Read more

News Desk : dhakamirror.com A week-long tree fair and plantation drive, held on Moulvibazar Government High School grounds, concludes today. The fair, organised by Moulvibazar district administration and the Department of Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation, began on July 27. Students, among other visitors, got the chance to explore an array of varieties, both local ... Read more

Sohrab Hossain The Shuvo Sandhya Beach in Barguna’s Taltali upazila has been facing serious erosion by the Bay for the last couple of years. Due to continuous erosion by the Bay, nearly 50 acres of forestland close to the beach and about 60,000 trees have already been washed away in the last five year. Meanwhile, ... Read more

Md Abbas There was a time when coconut, palm, tamarisk, and mangrove trees swayed with the winds on Kuakata Beach. Their tall trunks guarded the shore-dwellers against the wrath of natural calamities. However, the current state of the National Park, a government-declared forest reserve along this coastal belt since 2005, only brings dismay to tourists ... Read more

News Desk : dhakamirror.com Four more products, including the yogurt of Bogura, and Langra and Ashwina varieties of mango of Chapainawabganj have been recognised as geographical indication (GI) products from Bangladesh. In addition, the Aman variety of the fragrant Tulshimala rice from Sherpur has also acquired the GI tag, Md Zillur Rahman, deputy registrar (Trade ... Read more

Farmers get higher yield from newly developed rice variety Sajjad Hossain Mannan Joaddar cultivated BINA Dhan-25, a newly developed variety of paddy, on one bigha of land in Moghi village of Magura 93 days ago. The 55-year-old farmer is now over the moon. He had not seen such thin and long grain in his 20 ... Read more

Shykh Seraj Agriculture in Tangail region has changed a lot in the last three decades. Once the land of this region was unfit for any cultivation. Back then, it wasn’t possible to grow crops due to uneven land surface and lack of irrigation facilities. In the early 80s, the topography of Tangail’s Sakhipur, Ghatail, Basail ... Read more

Mostafa Shabuj About two decades ago, farmers in remote char areas of northern Bangladesh were quite impoverished due to the consequences of repeated flooding and other natural disasters. Now though, these farmers have achieved financial stability by growing maize, which is more suitable for the region compared to other crops. For example, more profitable crops ... Read more

EAM Asaduzzaman Life is easier now for Abu Taleb, 45, a potato farmer of Saddyo Puskuruni village in Rangpur. A year ago, high irrigation costs for diesel-run pumps, which he bore out-of-pocket, made it difficult for him to provide for his three children. Now, after switching to solar-powered irrigation, his livelihood has changed for the ... Read more

Dipankar Roy The once mighty Shoilmari river in Khulna’s Batiaghata upazila can now only be called a river on paper. In just three years, it has been filled with silt. The once 150-metre-wide river has now turned into a 3 to 4-metre narrow channel. Boats cannot sail there in low tide and people can cross ... Read more

News Desk : dhakamirror.com The current heavy rains brought on by the depression at the Bay of Bengal are predicted to last until Tuesday, according to the weather forecast service. The low will weaken in next 24 hours and move towards the plain land through Odisha and towards Chhatishgarh through West Bengal afterwards. Mostafa Kamal ... Read more

An environmental group called Bangladesh Environment Forum alleged Sunday that 120 hills had vanished from Chattogram city in the past forty years. The port city’s hills decreased from 32.37 square kilometers in 1976 to 14.02 square kilometers in 2008, according to a written statement from the forum’s general secretary, Aliur Rahman. He was addressing during ... Read more

Mirza Shakil When the pandemic hit and in-person classes at universities were suspended, Shakil Ahmed, then a final-year student of agriculture department at Noakhali Science and Technology University, had returned home. But he refused to sit idle, and so, asked his father for a plot of land to farm squash. The yield was massive as ... Read more

Brood fish in the Halda have released sample eggs – indicating full spawning – since Saturday night at various points of the river. Egg collectors got 200-500 grammes of eggs on average since Saturday night from the river. Ashu Barua from Madunaghat area, a seasoned egg collector, told The Daily Star that they started coming ... Read more

The ban on catching hilsa will be lifted at midnight today after two months. The fisheries department said due to the two-month ban, it will be possible to collect the desired target of 6 lakh tonnes of hilsa fish this time, reports our Barishal correspondent. However, many fishermen said they are not interested in going to ... Read more

“I never knew there’s so much beauty and fun hidden inside a book,” said 44-year-old Salma Begum, who learned to read and write very recently. “I had to blindly trust anyone who could read to let me know the contents of important documents. Now I’m self-sufficient in that regard, and use my own signature instead of ... Read more

Ethnic minorities suffer more Suzon Ali . Rajshahi Farmers in the Barind region are held hostage by Barind Multipurpose Development Authority deep tube well operators. Some farmers in the region said that deep tube well operators did not irrigate their land properly while others said that operators extracted extra money and ‘undue benefits’ from them. Talking ... Read more