Bangladesh bans water vessels in Shela river
Online Desk
23 Mar 2016 01:54 AM । Update: 23 Mar 2016 06:32 AM
File photo
Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan has declared banning all kinds of water vessels through Shela river of the Sundarbans forest.
The minister informed the press on Wednesday after a meeting on river protection in the secretarial.
Mr. Khan said, "Drowned coal-loaded ship and tanker has crated ecological threat. The nation is worried about this. We banned ships on Shela river already...Now that ban will be permanent."
Earlier, Bangladesh on Monday banned boats from sailing through a key southwestern river after a ship loaded with coal capsized, threatening the sanctuaries of rare dolphins in the world’s largest mangrove forest, reports the AFP.
The authorities imposed the ban after the ship sank in the Shela river on Saturday carrying over a thousand tonnes of coal, raising fears for two sanctuaries of endangered Irrawaddy and Ganges river dolphins and the delicate ecology of the Sundarbans forest.
“We have decided to ban all types of naval movement at the Shela river indefinitely,” shipping secretary Ashok Madhob Roy told, saying the ships would be rerouted to another channel on the edge of the forest.
Bangladesh suspended cargo boat transport through the same river in 2014 after a catastrophic oil spill that damaged the Sundarbans and triggered concerns for the forest’s dolphins and other endangered animals including Bengal tigers.
But the suspension was lifted under pressure from local trade groups, who have said the Shela river must be open for cargo vessels to ensure the smooth supply of industrial goods and food-grains to the southwestern region.
Officials said the hull of the vessel, which sank carrying more than 1,200 metric tonnes of coal and is yet to be salvaged, was cracked.
