The government is creating a green belt through an afforestation programme along the coast of 2,277 square kilometers to protect people's lives during cyclones and water surges.
The government is implementing multifaceted effective measures to deal with climate change risks in the Sundarban coastal region, according to the Environment, Forest and Climate Change ministry.
“To protect people's lives during cyclones and water surges, the government is creating a green belt through massive afforestation along the coast. So far 2,277 square kilometers of char afforestation has been done in the coastal area,” environment minister Md. Shahab Uddin said on Wednesday.
The environment minister said this as the chief guest at the national dialogue organised to deal with the harmful effects of climate change in the Sundarban coastal region at the Parliament Members Club auditorium of the Jatiya Sangsad.
The keynote was presented by Mohan Kumar Mondal, Executive Director of LEDARS (Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society).
To protect the Sundarban, 52 per cent of its area has been declared as a protected area and all types of forest resource extraction has been banned from it.
Four new ponds and 84 ponds have been re-excavated for food water for various foresters, forest workers and wildlife inside the Sundarbans.
The forest minister said, “Only if the government as well as all concerned work together, we will be able to reduce the risk of climate change in the Sundarbans coastal area.”
Habibun Nahar, deputy minister of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, spoke as a special guest at the dialogue held under the chairmanship of Sundarbans and Coast Protection Movement President Nikhil Chandra Bhadra.
Mir Mostak Ahmed Rabi, Member of Parliament for Satkhira-2 Constituency, Syeda Rubina Akter and Gloria Jharna Member of Parliament for Reserved Women Constituency and Sharif Jamil, General Secretary of Bangladesh Environment Movement, spoke as panel discussants.
