Reporting from this source, summarised, rewritten or translated and published under its name · 13 stories
EnvironmentWith bamboo and undergrowth lost to disease and people gathering plants in the forest, the 40 to 45 Asian elephants of Kaptai National Park in Rangamati are short of food and coming into villages at night, raising the risk of conflict.
In a Daily Star column, AKM Iqbal Bahar and Raihanul Jannat argue that Dhaka's health question is not the number of hospitals but access, affordability and fair distribution: a question of urban planning.
Bird experts say communal roosting outside the breeding season is normal for house sparrows and protects them from predators and cold.
EnvironmentResearchers from the Chattogram Bird Club and the University of Chittagong confirmed the yellow-throated sparrow in Bangladesh from photos taken at Boroichhari, Kaptai, on 24 April; their paper in the journal Check List says it is the species' easternmost record in the world.
EnvironmentA World Bank-funded Department of Environment project going to ECNEC would use drones to watch waste dumping along the Turag, enforce treatment plants at 173 factories and monitor water quality in real time.
EnvironmentThe Forest Department's Wildlife Crime Control Unit seized 9,046 turtles from 2021 to September this year, about 85 per cent of them since 2024; the Indian roofed turtle tops the list.
FruitsWholesale raw papaya in Dhaka has sold at Tk 4 to 10 a kilogram for a week after bigger plantings and good yields flooded the market; papaya that costs Tk 10 to 12 a kilogram to grow is selling for less than half that.
In Nimtala, Godagari, Golam Rasul has lost his land, orchards and half his brick house to Padma erosion; of 188 families hit by erosion in the upazila over five years, only 91 have received help.
Katimon, a Thai year-round variety planted on under a hectare in 2014, now covers 4,757 hectares in four districts; by top-working old trees farmers harvest out of season at three to ten times main-season prices.
OpinionIn a Daily Star column, Umme Salma writes that about 34 percent of the food Bangladesh produces is lost or wasted, while 66 percent of people cannot afford a healthy diet.
EnvironmentBangladesh produces about 3,000 tonnes of plastic waste a day, much of it ending up in rivers; microplastics have been found in Buriganga fish and crabs, while the polythene ban and court orders go unenforced.
Erosion by the Madhumati since 20 July has taken at least 110 homesteads and about two kilometres of the only road at Charkholabaria and Dignagar in Faridpur's Alfadanga; a school, madrasa and mosque are at risk.
The agriculture department in Kurigram will distribute fertiliser in the coming Rabi season against a soil health protection card.
