Mostafa Yousuf

Residents of the capital have inhaled clean air for only 38 days in the last six years, found a study, highlighting the gravity of the air pollution that over two crore people of the city are exposed to every day.

The air quality of 10 significant areas in the capital scored below standard throughout 2021, according to a study of the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies of the Department of Environmental Science at Stamford University.

The level of pollutants in the Buriganga water samples taken from some dyeing factory effluent release points is much higher than standard levels, found a study.

The water quality of the Buriganga continues to be poor even though it has been almost five years since the tanneries from the capital’s Hazaribagh area were relocated to an estate in Hemayetpur of Savar.  

The Roads and Highways Department has earth-filled about 26 acres of the Kuhelia river in Cox’s Bazar to build a two-lane road.

The Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation is looking to turn 214 acres of Madhupur Sal Forest into an industrial park.

When countries around the world are phasing out coal-based power plants, the Bangladesh government has planned eight such projects in Maheshkhali of Cox’s Bazar despite their potential adverse impacts in and around the coastal belt. 

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association yesterday served legal notice on the authorities concerned seeking cancellation of the status change of Chattogram’s harmful shipbreaking industry from red to orange.

The Department of Environment (DoE) has downgraded the status of the harmful shipbreaking industry in Chattogram from red to orange caving into the pressure from the ship recycling yard owners, in a development that is set to cause serious damage to the ecology in the area.

Though six of Chattogram City Corporation’s sweeping trucks are gathering dust at a dumping ground in the port city for years, the city authorities have taken up plans to buy two more vehicles at the cost of Tk 8 crore.

The wars of the 21st century will be fought over water, the former World Bank Vice-President Ismail Serageldin had predicted in 1995. And a recent visit to the Chattogram Hill Tracts suggests the region is inching that way.

After sighting multiple elephant calves over the last one and a half years, the divisional forest office of Cox’s Bazar (south) is seeing hope for the endangered species in the region.

Around 7:00am on October 13, a 30-year-old Ekram Hossain dialled 999 and reported to the police about an alleged defamation of the Holy Quran at Nanua Dighir Par puja mandap in Cumilla city.

Dozens of monkeys died in Moheshkhali forest on Tuesday after eating poisoned bananas placed as a trap by a local farmer who encroached upon the forest to cultivate his crop.

When open sewers in the port city have become a death trap claiming at least four lives in the span of just three months, the authorities concerned stay in a deep slumber instead of taking measures to prevent such deaths.

Chattogram Veterinary and Animal Science University (CVASU) has built a dormitory in a protected forest -- which was leased out to them by the land ministry for building an institute for coastal biodiversity, marine fisheries and wildlife research, amid strong opposition from the forest department.

A syndicate of bureaucrats, politicians and officials of Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI) in Cox’s Bazar have systematically siphoned off Tk 78 crore in public money from three development projects.

Wild elephants face serious threats to their survival in the country, thanks to frequent killings of the giant mammal and shrinking of their habitat in the absence of concrete protective measures by the government.

When the Executive Committee for National Economic Council (Ecnec) in August 2017 approved a Tk 7,916 crore project for Chattogram Development Board (CDA) to mitigate the waterlogging crisis, port city dwellers were exhilarated, expecting the perennial woes to end by 2020, as per the project deadline.

At a time when public trust in policing is windling, a circle of Chattogram police has taken up an initiative to find a way to improve the people-police relationship.