Bangladesh has long been affected by illegal land encroachment, which has been the reason behind many natural disasters including landslides, destruction of bio-diversity and so on.

Following a drive on July 14 and 15 with the help of police, coast guard and Navy personnel at Jinjira Island of  Saint Martin’s island, the Department of Environment’s step to fine seven different organizations around Tk 10 million will definitely be welcomed by Bangladeshis as  a positive step to curb this menace.

As Daily Star reported on July 18:

A DoE team from Chittagong led by its director Zafar Alam conducted the drive at Jinjira Island of Saint Martin on July 14 and 15 with the help of police, coast guard and Navy personnel.

The team found out that the offenders were building highrise structures illegally occupying the seashore by installing pillars and filling it with sand illegally. The structures were visibly escalating risk of erosion and environmental imbalance.

Molla Bashir Ahmed Panna, owner of Panama Resort, was fined Tk 5.22 lakh, Syeed Alam, owner of a under- construction hotel was fined Tk 20.90 lakh, Rezaul Karim, owner of an under-construction hotel, was fined Tk 1 lakh and Nazrul Islam Chowdhury, owner of Chowdhury Labiba Bilash, was fined Tk 19.16 lakh.

Meanwhile, Chowdhury Builders Private Limited was fined Tk 19.16, Moulavi Abdur Rahman, owner of an under-construction hotel was fined Tk 17.42 lakh, and Shamsul Huda, managing director of Keari Tours and services Limited, was fined Tk 26.23 lakh.

Daily Star also reported that the DoE, after confiscating various construction materials from these sites, asked the offenders to “restore the sites to its previous state by July 19 or face prosecution under Environment Protection Act 1995.”