Illegal sand extraction threatens farmlands

Illegal sand extraction continues unabated in four upazilas of Feni posing serious threats to farmlands despite government’s restrictions on the practice.

Villagers in Sonagazi, Parshuram, Chhagalnaiya and Feni Sadar upazila are worried over the continued sand lifting and said that authorities concerned had a deaf year to their repeated complaints against “sand mafia” for the past couple of years.

Locals said these powerful syndicates are illegally lifting sand and sell it to brick kilns.

Some villages alleged that the illegal trade continues under the blessings from local politician and administration. Not only do they lift sand from unauthorised extraction sites, but also encroach other areas destroying farmlands.

Adding to that, the trench created in the riverbed by sand extraction has intensified erosion in nearby roads, croplands and homesteads and thousands acres of land is being devoured by the rivers Feni, Muhuri and Choto Feni.

According to the Feni District Administration, there are eight authorised sand extraction sites in four upazilas — Sonagazi, Parshuram, Chhagalnaiya and Feni Sadar. Of them, all of the sites are leased to local sand traders except one. For the past 12 years, the administration did not lease out 129-acre sand extraction site in Feni Sadar upazila.

The district administration has fixed lease money of Tk 44 lakh for the site but none has shown interest. Rather, local sand traders preferred to lift sand from the site without any authorisation for the past decade, locals alleged.

Not only these eight designated sites, the influential sand traders extract sand from 30 to 35 more unauthorised areas.

They said although authorities issue notifications once a year regarding the lease of the site, the influential sand traders do not apply for the tender themselves or let others lease the land through a syndicate, and illegally extract sand worth crores of takas from the site.

“One such site is at Char Jaha in Chhagalnaiya,” said Nizam Uddin, a local resident.

He said although the sand traders are not authorised to extract sand from the adjacent areas of Shubhapur Bridge, they are regularly lifting sand from there posing risk to the historical establishment.

“The vacuum created by the illegal extraction is causing river erosion to the area. The bank of bordering river Muhuri on Bangladesh side is getting eroded and the charlands are emerging on the Indian side of the river,” he said.

“If this situation continues, the rivers will soon devour the embankment that connects the district with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Shilpanagar,” added Nizam.

Shah Alam, another resident of the upazila, told The Business Post that the sand traders are using small dredging machines and lifting sands from the riverbeds, char lands in a unplanned and irresponsible manner.

Feni Deputy Commissioner Abu Selim Mahmudul Hasan told The Business Post that they regularly conduct drives to the area to control the illegal sand traders.