The Chittagong Hill Tracts consists one of tenth of the area of Bangladesh. It is one of the places in Bangladesh full of diversity in the terms of cultures and traditions like- languages, clothing, lifestyles etc. The landscape beauty together with the greenery forests, hills, translucent water flows etc make the Parbatya Chattagram colorful and unique. People all over the places hold a great attraction of these hilly areas.
But it’s high time, we also focused on the things and become aware of the matters that are slowly destroying the beauty of the hill areas and prosecute the essentials. Recently reports about stone theft are noticed frequently than before which has been carried out for more than a decade. From now and then the concern for environment has caught our eyes for several times. The issue is at present more crucial as the consequences for stone theft and extraction from the hills have started affecting directly on the livelihoods of the all eleven ethnic groups living in Chittagong Hill Tracts who are dependent on the water of streaming Sangu River which has been fulfilling the demand of water all this time. The people rely on the water for drinking, irrigating, fishing and so on.
The water sources of the hill areas are situated far from the houses of people already but due to the continuous famishing, it has become difficult for them to get water. The Jhiris, waterfalls, kuas ( wells) even the deep sinking tube-wells are not being able to meet up the demand of water. Cutting down of trees at random and extracting the stones which help to keep the streams flow continually are the main reason behind the streams drying up.
The actions of the humankind is the main reason here.Extraction is happening for the purpose of constructing roads, selling them at good price for self profit by the evil minded businessmen. What makes it worse is the events are occurring in front of the eyes of the civil administrations, the forest department, the security forces or the authority concerned so. The extraction are being continued directly or indirectly, with or without permission of authorities and they have turned a blind eye upon this matter although in recent years various protests have been made by the locals. The corrupted dominion are less bothered and no legal actions are adopted against this illegality.Sometimes, the laborers are made to make compensation for the actions while the main perpetrators behind it who are responsible are left behind without any kind of punishments for which the events continue to happen.
The target of extraction seemingly increases during the summer season when the streams are slendered and narrowed. The large stones are crushed into small chunks. In the name of development, the actions are invading on the survival of the indigenous people.
The newspapers have covered the matter every now and then.The illegal functions are performed predominantly in theprofound areas like- Alikadam, Ruma, Thanchi, Kaukhali etcwhere the people are unaware of their rights and the flickering development has not happened and again where it is very much easy for the administrative segment to commit these kinds of offences. In one interview, a resident who is facing the troubles regarding water says that, they have to wake up at dawn 4am to start for fetching water which is 3km away from her home as the water sources within her area are dying and there’s no way open for alternative. So it is unthinkable how her family as well as the other families are struggling to meet the demand of water everyday in a developing country like Bangladesh. Not only that, because of the extraction of stones the biodiversity along with the livelihoods of indigenous people is also suffering.
Pollution of environment including the water being both polluted and unsanctified is making the hill people suffer from various water-borne diseases creating both environment and health hazards in Parbatya Chattagram. The sufferings are becoming unthinkable and hard to solve as still there is hardly any fruitful steps taken by the authorities and Govt. If the needs of a number of people are remained unredressed then also the guarantee of health and life is constrained and it is not appreciable at all.
It is not too late to take the required steps for ensuring the right of life to the remote indigenous communities and strong action if taken in time, maybe the wreck of biodiversity and many lives will be saved from the dangerous hazards right now happening in CHT. The authorities should play the vital role in this regard and listen to the cry of the hill people suffering from lack of water which is considered as life, a fundamental right of humankind.
Written by Priase Chakma
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