St. Martin in peril with too many people and buildings

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Teknaf Correspondent
Published : 01:00, Jul 23, 2018 | Updated : 01:00, Jul 23, 2018

St. Martin in peril with too many people and buildingsDue to excess people and buildings, St. Martin Island has started to show signs of erosion. The island now stands simply on rocks. The environmental degradation continues as rocks and sand are being used indiscriminately.
The coral island faces the threat of extinction if this goes on unabated.
The common complaint of the locals is though the government earns crores as revenue from the island, efforts to safeguard it have been lackadaisical.
St. Martin Island UP chairman, Nur Ahmed, says: “Due to excess pressure, the island is subsiding.”
One morning, we may wake up to see the island disappeared into the sea, he warned.
Residents of the island say that as a result of slight rain and sea waves, erosion has begun in certain areas.
They say that the resorts are also facing danger.
The coral island faces the threat of extinction if this goes on unabated.Two hundred years ago, the island had only 13 people which now stands at more than nine thousand, lamented Nur Mohammad, a local.
To save the island, illegal construction has to be stopped, he stressed.
Meanwhile, despite St. Martin being deemed an ecologically critical area, EAS, the real picture is dismal.
To save the bio-diversity of the island, the Supreme Court’s appellate division gave directive to relevant authorities in 2011 to evict illegal establishments.
Head of Cox’s Bazaar based environment body, Youth Environment Society (YES), says: “to save the island, the court order has to be respected.”
The coral island faces the threat of extinction if this goes on unabated.Previously, there was an order to demolish 38 illegally constructed residential hotels on the island, which never materialized.
Teknaf UNO, Md Robiul Hasan told Bangla Tribune: “the erosion is worrying.”
Assistant director of the Department of Environment’s Cox’s Bazar office, Saiful Asrab, told Bangla Tribune: “we heard of the erosion and will visit the sites to get first hand evidence.”

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