The forest department wants to build a protective wall of trees to guard coastal land in Chattogram and reduce damage. It has taken up a plan to make the whole coast green: 3.15 crore trees will be planted over the next five years on new chars that have risen in four upazilas.

There are 300 kilometres of embankment from Mirsharai in Chattogram to Teknaf in Cox's Bazar. For lack of regular afforestation, it is hard to find any trace of trees on 180 kilometres of it. Wherever there is no forest, coastal residents have suffered severe erosion, and every natural disaster has caused heavy losses. The Water Development Board looks after the embankments, but the forest department plants trees on them.

At a secretaries' meeting at the Secretariat on 2 July 2017, the prime minister stressed coastal afforestation. Among her 17 directives to the secretaries, 1,738 square kilometres of the Bay of Bengal were declared a Marine Protected Area, and she ordered tree planting, environmental and wildlife conservation, and mangrove, participatory block and strip plantations to guard against natural disasters.

According to the Water Development Board, in Chattogram district 32 kilometres of embankment in Banshkhali, 33.62 kilometres in Sitakunda, 58 kilometres in Sandwip and 32.20 kilometres in Mirsharai are at high risk.

Patenga, Kathgar and Anwara upazila on the city coast are also at risk, and people on the Chakaria, Teknaf and Kutubdia coasts of Cox's Bazar live in constant fear of water. Without a green belt, big waves from the Bay of Bengal crash onto the coast at new and full moon, causing damage.

Afforestation on newly risen coastal chars began in 1965, with planting done in phases under several projects to protect lives and property from cyclones and tidal surges. But forest thieves have cleared most of the plantations, most of all in Banshkhali, so visible coastal forest has shrunk. The forest department has now taken up planting again.

According to the forest department, another 2,000 acres of char will rise beyond the Bangabandhu Shilpa Nagar in Mirsharai, which will also be planted. About 5,000 hectares of char will rise in Sandwip, Urirchar, Mirsharai, Sitakunda and Banshkhali over the next five years.

Seedlings are planted at 4,500 a hectare, which gives the target of 3.15 crore seedlings. On the Sitakunda, Mirsharai, Sandwip and Urirchar coasts the main species will be keora, with baen and gewa among others. In Banshkhali, baen will be the main species, with keora and gewa among others. Different species are planted according to conditions on each part of the coast.

About 1,500 hectares of the Chattogram coast have been afforested in the past five years, including 100 hectares on the Mirsharai coast in 2020-21, 200 hectares in 2021-22 and 100 hectares in 2022-23.

Mohammad Abdur Rahman, divisional officer of the coastal forest in Chattogram, said: "In Mirsharai we have planted outside the super dyke every year for the past three years. The trees will be visible within the next five years. New chars on the coasts of four upazilas are also being planted."

He said about one and a half thousand hectares had been planted in these areas in the past five years, with three factors taken into account. Coastal plantations bring two benefits: they protect land and form a protective wall, and they will guard the embankments the government is building on the coast. If tree felling stops, the whole coast will be green.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.