Hill Cutting at Cox’s Bazar
Fine slapped on realtor
A housing company has been fined about Tk 3 crore for wiping out hills and forests on an area of 100 acres to develop a housing project at Jhilongja in Cox’s Bazar.
The Department of Environment in a drive yesterday slapped the fine on Uttaran Grihayan Samabai Samity and shut down the project only two kilometres off the Cox’s Bazar town.
A huge quantity of construction materials and equipment were seized from the project area. No arrests could be made as all company officials and workers had already fled the place before the drive, said DoE officials.
They said the company had sold 600 people housing plots under the project, about 80 feet above the sea level.
Frequent hill cutting in Cox’s Bazar has posed a threat to ecology and caused a series of mudslides in and around the town in the last two years.
With the help of law enforcers, a special DoE team led by Mohammed Munir Chowdhury, director of Monitoring and Enforcement, fined Md Sirajul Islam, secretary of the housing company, Tk 2.88 crore for causing environmental damage.
“They have turned bare vast swathes of forest and hills,” said the DoE official.
The department fined the company for damaging biodiversity by flattening hills, destroying the topsoil of a vast area, filling up low land and clearing the vegetation, said DoE officials.
It is so far the largest flattening of hills in an area, they said.
Apart from housing plots, the developer had a master plan to construct stadium, auditorium, school, college, private university, playground, park, malls, library, swimming pool, bank and post office, said the DoE.
The developer had already set up “Uttaran Model School and College” at the project site.
The fine of Tk 2.88 crore slapped on the housing company is so far the highest by the DoE against any person or organisation in a single case.
The department last week penalised a textile company, owned by a Pakistani national, Tk 2.24 crore for polluting more than 200 acres of agricultural and wetland in Bhaluka of Mymensingh.
The DoE team yesterday seized 15,000 bricks, two tonnes of iron rod, 16 vehicles and 10.5 tonnes of cement from the project area.
The district environment office was directed to file a lawsuit under the Environment Conservation Act (amendment), 2010 against the people responsible.
