The navy will remove illegal shrimp enclosures built by cutting the mangrove forest on Sonadia island in Maheshkhali upazila, Cox's Bazar. The prime minister approved a proposal to that effect from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on 3 August.
Forest experts explain that tides flow into a mangrove through countless small creeks, and that this flow keeps the ecosystem alive. Encroachers cut the trees and dam the mouths of the creeks to farm shrimp, and the forest dries out and dies. Restoring the tidal flow is essential to bring it back.
Fahmida Haque Khan, a joint secretary and director of the ministry project, told Prothom Alo that involving the armed forces requires the prime minister's approval, which came in August. A meeting this month of the Armed Forces Division, the navy and the environment ministry will settle the eviction plan. The navy may need about Tk 4 crore for the operation, while the project has Tk 2 crore set aside.
Sonadia was declared an ecologically critical area in 2006. In 2017, 9,466.93 acres of its forest land were allotted to the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority (BEZA) for an eco-tourism park, after which the Forest Department lost legal authority and encroachment grew. The department estimates at least 7,000 acres of mangrove have been cut. In March 2025 the government decided to return the land; about 8,045 acres in three mouzas have come back so far, while 12,270 acres in six mouzas are still with BEZA.
In 2025 the Maheshkhali upazila administration identified 45 kilometres of embankments and asked for Tk 4.2 crore to remove them; it evicted 11 illegal enclosures that year. Sonadia beat officer Alauddin Al Azad said forest staff are attacked when they try to stop encroachment, and that the beat office has only six people, not enough to hold back hundreds of encroachers.
Md Alamgir Kabir, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, said earlier evictions had been for show; bringing in the navy for a full operation is good news, but biodiversity must be restored afterwards and strict monitoring is needed to stop the enclosures returning. Aminul Haque, acting president of the group's Maheshkhali branch, said the Forest Department must be given more staff.
The report is by Prothom Alo's Cox's Bazar correspondent Mostafa Yusuf.
Photo: Zislam1968 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) (Sonadia beach)
Source: Prothom Alo
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