Staff Correspondent

Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan on Monday demanded of the government to take immediate steps to protect Jaflong, one of the favourite natural tourist spots in the country, as an influential quarter with the help of local administration is destroying the area extracting stone and hard rock.

‘Two rivers in the area, Dauki and Piyain, are on the verge of extinction because of the uncontrolled extraction of stones using excavators by an influential quarter.

Jaflong can no longer be recognised for its natural beauty because of the greed of some people,’ said Sharif Jamil, joint secretary of BAPA and coordinator of Bangladesh Adibashi Paribesh Rakkha Andolan at a press conference.

‘Besides, the indigenous people, Khasias, are also forced to leave their localities as the influential quarters have also started extracting stones at places where they reside,’ he said at the Dhaka Reporters Unity while sharing the experiences of recent visits to Jaflong in Sylhet.

Sharif said that although the interim government in February 2007, confiscated 44 excavators from the bank of Dauki and Piyani and stopped use of stone crusher machines, a new influential quarter under the banner of Sylhet Foundation have started excavation in the name of river protection.

‘Jaflong Foundation, formed with the initiative of Sylhet Foundation have bored several big holes around the river Dauki,’ he said. Sharif said that a stone crushing zone was constructed at a hillock, owned by a retired army official, which is destroying the environment of Jaflong.

‘The corrupt officials of the local administration have joined hands with this influential quarter,’ he said. Terming Jaflong as national heritage, the BAPA president, professor Muzaffer Ahmad, said the stones could be extracted in traditional form, with hands, to meet the demand. ‘Besides, large volumes of extracted hard rocks are being piled up at the Madhyapara hard rock mine because of a lack of buyers’.

He said the government should immediately formulate a river protection policy. BAPA demanded that the government form an investigation committee to find out people behind destruction of Jaflong and formulate a separate tourism policy for the area. BAPA vice president ASM Shahjahan and general secretary Abdul Matin spoke on the occasion.

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