Environment
When teens of the world unite for Planet Earth
Just a day after teenagers around the world skipped classes and gathered on the streets of Dhaka, Warwick, Hamburg, London, and
Was that you Akela?
In Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a series of short fables published in 1894, Akela and Raksha were the wolf parents of Mowgli,
ENVIRONMENT / Can our mangroves survive the impulse to industrialise?
On August 24, 2017, the High Court directed the Bangladesh government not to approve any industry activity within 10 kilometres of the Sundarbans area.
Teesta / The Vanishing Fishermen of Teesta
“In the last 15 years, I had to change homes 11 times. During every monsoon, Teesta swallows my residence and most of my belongings.
The dust-laden air of Dhaka
We all know Dhaka's air is bad. Yet it is never more visible than now, in the drier months of the year. This is only compounded by the constant construction that unfolds across the city, not least the metro that is being developed to ease congestion and pollution on the roads.
Technology at Tanguar Haor
It took three separate modes of transportation, a major fight between a bus driver and his helper, and a sleepless night before I managed to reach the foothills of Meghalaya to witness conservation and technology merge and in turn, make history for Bangladesh.
Environment / The water business in the south west of Bangladesh
There is a district in the south-west of Bangladesh which is at the epicentre of a drinking water crisis. A crisis that is being exacerbated everyday owing to the realities of climate change.
Putting a price tag on climate change
The reality of climate change and energy policy are at odds in Bangladesh. The delta resides on low, arable land and is accordingly, highly susceptible to climate change.
The water benders of Satkhira
The first time I visited Satkhira, the tide country, was as a student of Environmental Science. And I remember returning with pages upon pages of focus group discussions with villagers who were living in homes that had been cut off from nearly everything because of water-logging. They talked of a life constantly battling a disaster.
Let the rivers run wild
To this day, there is that one Bangla poem that I cannot but help start reciting in my head if I find anyone saying the words Choto Nodi.
A conservation effort spanning borders
Why does the Spoon-billed sandpiper, a tiny sparrow-sized bird, migrate all the way from Chukotka, Russia to a mudflat of Bangladesh?
The dangerous half degree
A new report published last week by the United Nation's Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an organisation consisting of leading climate scientists from all over the world, has warned that by 2030, the earth's temperature is expected to witness an increase by at least half a degree.
Stuck in-between a “Corridor and a Camp”
It is the Bangladesh-Myanmar border; the calm of the forest is broken by piercing sounds of gunfire and screams. Everywhere, people are on the run and she too trudges on, heavy, weary steps one at a time, trying to find refuge. She eventually makes it to the forests of Bangladesh only to be stuck indefinitely.
CAN WE DEFEAT THE SIXTH MASS EXTINCTION?
Over the last two centuries, humans have caused irreparable damage to the environment. Forests, rivers, hills, and seas have turned upside down and species displaced for food and shelter.
Productivity before People?
Without effectual resistance, Bangladesh is poised to join the ranks of 31 other nuclear nations of the world with the construction of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant. The Government of Bangladesh asks that people be proud of this fact. Yafes Osman, minister of science and technology has stated that this is a historical moment for Bangladesh. Whatever support
All that glitters is not sustainable
The shopping malls sparkle with multi-coloured fairy lights throughout the night, beckoning us to indulge. Industries on the banks of Dhaka's prominent rivers boast of jobs and reek of foreign currency. Towering high-rises and old buildings given to 'develop' into apartment blocks reign over Dhaka's skyline. Thousands of crores of taka are invested in roads and highways connecting the country, and millions more are poured into energy generation. On the onset, we look every bit the part of the middle income country that we are on track to become.
Sundarban's new neigbours
Even mid-way last year, the Department of Environment's environmental clearance committee questioned whether Navana's Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plant in Mongla should be cleared. “The plant is within the designated Ecologically Critical Area around the Sundarbans,” they opined. They held off on giving the license.
The gradual dying of our rivers
The rivers winding through our delta make for a beautiful landscape as well as being one of our greatest assets—we depend on it for everything from our food to transport to an abundance of flora and fauna. Yet our rivers have been allowed to deteriorate to such an extent that these are no longer aesthetically, economically or ecologically viable.