'Why this loss?’

By Senjuti Shuvo Ahmed North Hall Dhaka College, Dhaka-1205
13 March 2005, 18:00 PM
The letter 'Why this loss?' by Mr. Habibur Rahman (March 2) drew my attention. Really, while over-population is putting pressure on our biodiversity, why have we lost 25 million US dollars that could have been used to protect it? This is the question asked by many.

Well, the government has little time to address environmental issues because we have many burning problems like corruption, terrorism etc. The laws of punishment for poaching are not stringent enough, for which we have to regularly hear the news of recovering deer, tigers, timbers etc and have to see the poachers carrying wild birds for sale even in Dhaka city.

But can't the government melt butter in its mouth? Can't the government feel, that because of withdrawal of the ADB's loan for the Sundarbans Biodiversity Conservation Project, donors might have begun to believe that we are good for nothing. I believe even if we got the loan, it would not have been put to good use.

So, we can say if the Ministry of Forest and Environment has any repentance, that's only for the lost dollars, not for environmental loss. If that's not the case, why doesn't the ministry identify those responsible for this mess-up?