Archive for December, 2007
Kuakata: the deep south
December 24, 2007 10:25 am
See more Kuakata photos..
Bangladesh’s deep South is dappled by religious conservatism and indigenous unease. As one of Bangladesh’s rapidly growing tourist destinations, Kuakata offers a calm respite from Dhaka’s suffocating intensity, without the commercialisation of Cox’s Bazar.
Located 320km south of Dhaka and 70km south of Patuakhali, Kuakata is connected to the rest of the mainland by a series of river crossings. The dusty, laborious bus journey meanders through an increasingly rural landscape. Dilapidated buildings, exposed roots and millions of dollars worth of destroyed rice crops currently litter the roadside—consequences of Cyclone Sidr.
As you journey southward, men from the modern workforce are slowly replaced by chickens, farmers and veiled women. It feels like an adventure in the Wizard of Oz where at the end of your journey you’ll discover romance as you stroll hand-in hand along an isolated beach. But like the movie the romance must be inside because other local tourists are seizing the opportunity to watch the glistening light of a waking and setting sun play upon the ocean.
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Guide Tours Sundarban relief effort update
December 8, 2007 12:33 am1st Field Report from The Guide Tours Ltd. Relief Efforts
On November 15th 2007 cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh; thousands of lives and homes were destroyed, hundreds of boats and men were lost in our coastal waters. The Sundarban forest took a heavy blow.
Within hours we received word from friends around the world, extending their hands and contributing to our relief efforts. We are overwhelmed by the support we are receiving, and would like to thank all of you. There is no way we can express our gratitude or describe our experiences in the field adequately, but rest assured that your support is greatly appreciated.
Our wooden trawler R.B. Emma left from Khulna on November 21st, loaded with 2200 kilos of rice, 100 kilos of lentils, 100 kilos of salt, 100 liters of soy bean oil, bags of onions, chilies, matches, candles, jerry cans with potable water, oral rehydration salt and water purification tablets (total cost 500 US$), and set out for the Sundarban forest. Fishermen and Forest Department staff at Dubla and Shela char, Kokilmoni, Katka, Kochikhali, Supoti, Horintana and along the way received basic supplies from our crew and members of the Sundarban Tiger Project Team.
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This story republished from the New Age, Friday, Dec. 7, 2007. Because the new age stories do not stay online permanently, the editors of Joybangla.info saw it fit to be re-published here. Photo by Belinda Meggitt.
It is estimated that between 5 and 10 million people who live along the coastal belt and the fringe areas of Sundarban depend on the forest resources for their livelihoods. Notwithstanding the fact that it is these communities who have lost almost all their possessions and livelihood to the destruction that the cyclone wrought, it does not take a great deal of imagination to estimate the impact the government’s latest decision will have on the coastal economy. The reality remains that the forest department, as it is now, is the arch enemy of any realistic and meaningful protection and conservation of Sundarban, writes Mahtab Haider
EVER since cyclone Sidr, the idea that Bangladesh must protect Sundarban as its strongest line of defence against tropical cyclones has been gaining currency among policymaking circles. It has taken the carnage and destruction of a cyclone like Sidr to wake the government to the reality that the tidal mangroves of Sundarban offer a kind of protection to the coastal belt that all the cyclone shelters and coastal embankments cannot. The idea of a green belt along the coast is not new, such proposals have been gathering dust in the ministries for decades, and if history is a key to predicting the future, will continue to do so as the lessons learnt from Sidr give way to less far-thinking and more ad hoc solutions.
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