CHATTOGRAM: The government will take care of Bangladesh's lone coral island St Martin's, including its territorial water, which it declared as "St Martin's Marine Protected Area" early this year.
State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Md Mahbub Ali said this after holding a meeting with Cox's Bazar district administration officials in the tourism town on Friday morning.
The government in January this year declared the 3 square kilometers island under Teknaf upazila in Cox's Bazar as "St Martin's Marine Protected Area" to save its biodiversity, including land, waters, trees, animals, flora and fauna.
Mr Mahbub Ali said the government has already given all necessary directives in this regard to the concerned authorities, including the local administration.
"The government will take all actions to save the biodiversity of coral island St Martin's," a district administration official said.
Following the directives, the local administration has started to evict all illegal structures and establishments from the island from February 12 last, he said.
Deputy Commissioner of Cox's Bazar Mamunur Rashid, Teknaf Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Parvej Chowdhury and St Martin's Union Parishad Chairman Mujibur Rahman also addressed the meeting.
State Minister Mahbub Ali visited St Martin's island with a delegation from Nepal on Thursday. He held a meeting with the local administration officials the next day.
An official at the deputy commissioner's office said that a circular, signed by Dipok Kumar Chakraborti, the Deputy Secretary of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry, was issued on January 4 last declared the 3 square kilometers (SQM) island and its 1,743 SQM territorial waters as St Martin's Marine Protected Area under section 13(1) and 13(2) of the Wild Animal Law of 2012.
The circular said that the government made the declaration with the aim to save the coral, biodiversity and enrich the Blue Economy and achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
