JU needs a new master plan urgently
It is deeply concerning that the Jahangirnagar University (JU) campus has lost nearly 40 percent of its waterbodies over the last three and a half decades. This has been revealed by a new study on JU land use that analysed data from 1988 to 2023. The study also found that the university's vegetation cover shrunk by 26.5 percent during the same period. By contrast, its built-up area went up by 159.3 percent, with around 172.5 acres being converted into built-up land.
In 1988, waterbodies covered an area of 122.4 acres on the campus, which dropped to 73.58 acres last year. At the same time, its vegetation coverage of 388.80 acres shrunk to just 285.88. The study does not mention how such vast areas of waterbodies have been lost—this is something that the JU authorities need to find out. We do, however, know that many trees have been felled in the name of development, and that green spaces have been decreasing at a worrying rate as a result. What is further concerning is that the JU's original master plan, designed by renowned architect Mazharul Islam in 1968, has been repeatedly neglected during the subsequent structural development phases, which is one of the reasons why the campus is losing its originality including its green spaces.
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The architecture of the buildings constructed in the last two decades does not harmonise with the surrounding environment either, and does not utilise maximum airflow and natural lighting. Moreover, many abandoned structures remain in place, unnecessarily occupying campus space. The haphazard manner in which the authorities have been developing the campus is also harming its biodiversity and leading to its pristine beauty being lost. Hence, students and teachers have been organising protests demanding a new master plan. Even though the authorities have been claiming that they are in the process of preparing a new master plan for the last two years, nothing substantive has so far materialised. Their apathy and negligence in this regard is unacceptable.
The JU is one of the most beautiful universities in Bangladesh. For its campus to be treated the way it has been over recent decades is a great travesty. It is high time the authorities started taking proper care of the campus—particularly its natural beauty—and prepared a new master plan. They must cease construction or planning of any new building or structure in contravention of its master plan.
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