Nation

Kamol Dey Lack of publicity and lax management have plunged the National Museum of Science and Technology into obscurity. The museum lags far behind its target to build a science-based society through displaying scientific and technological equipment to the citizens, specially the schoolchildren. It also faces acute manpower crisis, with only one curator and four ... Read more

A mild to moderate cold wave is sweeping through nine districts including Dhaka causing disruption in ferry services and intensifying sufferings of the poor. An official at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday said only one flight (of Jet Airways) was delayed by around two hours due to fog. Other flights took off or landed on ... Read more

How many diamonds in the rough have ended as ordinary pebbles in the heat and pressure of life unforgiving? Well, in the havens of poverty, a mind boggling many. Let us put it this way, a child yoked to an oil-expeller (ghani) spends three to four hours on schooldays and agonisingly longer hours on holidays, ... Read more

“Do not disturb us, we want safe zone to survive,” read a placard with a cardboard cut-out of a tiger at a token tigers’ rally formed to press home the demand of saving the biggest species of the cat family from extinction. Some tiger lovers formed a human chain at the rally holding some placards ... Read more

Poachers in northern districts catching a large number of such birds for customers in Dhaka Poachers are indiscriminately trapping and shooting a large number of pond herons and cattle egrets in the vast marshlands of the northern region every day to satisfy the appetite of consumers in the capital. It’s very usual for car riders ... Read more

A global information and communication technology (ICT) report has lauded Bangladesh’s two initiatives — one by Banglalink and the other by Grameenphone that cater to the market information needs of rural farmers. Banglalink’s helpline Jigyasha and Grameenphone’s telecentre-based market solutions have been helping address the farmers’ needs across the country, said a report of the ... Read more

Khadija, a class nine student, takes a laborious journey on her way to school, as she has to cross a submerged road at the Hundir Beel of Shugandhi village under Sadar upazila. About 50 students from the tiny huts of the locality use this road to go to different schools and madrasas. Forty families have ... Read more

Wildlife officials and nature lovers yesterday busted the long-time illegal trade in wildlife at the Kantaban pet shops. The ugly face of the covert illegal trade in wildlife surfaced when forest department officials and wildlife lovers under police protection raided the shops in the afternoon. About a thousand birds, some of them critically endangered, and ... Read more

To a person, who has not made a trip to the Sundarbans, the first floor of the city’s National Museum can be an ideal place to glimpse the biodiversity of the world’s largest mangrove forest. Inside a newly constructed diorama, one can see the monkeys of the forest clinching with the Sundari trees, the deer ... Read more

The Infrastructure Development Company Limited (IDCOL) on Tuesday organized a day-long workshop for the media to promote the use of biogas as an alternative energy source. IDCOL with assistance from Netherland’s development organisation SNV and German development bank KFW is implementing the national domestic biogas and manure programme (NDBMP) in the country. The programme is ... Read more

32, out of 58 cages, lie empty The Rajshahi Zoo is losing its attraction for the visitors, with 32, out of its 58 cages, remaining empty for long. The number of visitors to the zoo has decreased remarkably when it was once a popular recreational spot for the people in the north. Local people alleged ... Read more

Wildlife of Bangladesh Checklist of 1,042 animals published When Dr Reza Khan looks at the nature, he goes for the miniscule detail. Even, with his one eye impaired, he can pick a camouflaged spider that looks like a scorpion from the hillside. He has an enormous interest in the nature and its wildlife. So, when ... Read more

Tiger-human conflicts increased in Bangladesh sharply in first six months of 2010 compared to two previous years, said forest department officials. They said quoting forest department records that 41 incidents of tiger-human conflicts took place in the first six months of 2010 compared to 65 incidents in 2008 and 58 in 2009. According to forest ... Read more

A devastating erosion by the river Teesta rendered over four thousand people belonging to about one thousand families of seven villages under three upazilas of Lalmonrhat district during the last three days. The Chondimari spar under Mohishkhocha union of Aditmari upazila is under the threat of Teesta erosion as about 200 meters of its protection ... Read more

Brick kilns threaten existence of 1,200-yr-old archaeological site An archaeological site, with around 1,200 years of history, at Nawabganj upazila in Dinajpur lies in ruins due to illegal brick kilns activities and recklessness on the part of locals. In 2001, villagers first traced a Bouddha Bihar of the site in Domail village. An excavation team ... Read more

Good yield of jute this season fails to make farmers happy as they are facing problem to rot and process the natural fibre due to lack of water in absence of adequate rain in the ongoing monsoon. Encouraged by good price of jute last year, farmers in Tangail grew the cash crop on more areas ... Read more

More than 12 per cent of the country’s fish harvest is lost due to ignorance and negligence in management and processing at different stages from the harvest to retail distribution, reports NewAge. Nearly 25 per cent fish are consumed fresh while only a portion of the 40 per cent fish that require icing are properly processed, ... Read more

Frequent Outages in Patuakhali, Barguna Fishermen, traders count loss for want of ice Fishermen and fish traders in the coastal areas of Patuakhali and Barguna districts are facing losses due to storage problem as ice production has greatly reduced following frequent power cuts and low voltages, reports The Daily Star. Fishermen have to sell fishes ... Read more

Two employees of Bagerhat District and Sessions Judge’s Court yesterday poached 11 birds and slaughtered seven of them. The two employees–Saroj Biswas and Moni Sheikh–caught the young cormorants from the old court area in the morning. When locals surrounded the employees, they told them that they poached the birds at the instruction of a judge. ... Read more

Tidal surge from the Bay has washed away around 40 metres of the 320-metre-long Kuakata protection embankment only within two months of its construction, much to the worry of local people and tourists, reports The Daily Star. As the damage caused by cyclone Sidr and Aila left the area vulnerable, WDB constructed the embankment under ... Read more