Aflatoxin has been found in 135 tonnes of rice imported from India at the Halishahar central storage depot in Chattogram; first passed as fit to eat, the rice was retested by BRRI scientists after warehouse staff objected, and a committee has been formed for further tests.
EnvironmentThe Asian Development Bank's new climate report says rising seas, water shortages and falling farm output could force about 7.5 percent of Bangladesh's population to move within the country by 2050, while land subsidence on the coast threatens farmland.
FisheriesDuring the 22-day mother hilsa ban, boats are said to be landing hilsa at night at Botgachtola and Rahmatpur ghats in Sandwip, Chattogram, while none of the upazila's 8,332 card-holding fishers has yet received the promised 25kg of rice; the UNO says distribution starts on Sunday.
EnvironmentMore than a hundred trees, some 40 to 50 years old, have been cut on railway and government land at Faujdarhat in Sitakunda, Chattogram; locals say a group is levelling hillocks for a container depot, while the railway says it knows nothing.
EnvironmentRubbish from Batali station in Chattogram's Lohagara has been dumped at night in the Banpukur and Jangalia areas of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary for about 15 days; the range officer promises legal action.
Daily lifeA bun that cost Tk 10 six months ago now costs Tk 15 and loitta fish has doubled to Tk 300; an elderly Chattogram hawker lives on buns and water, and a driver is sending his family back to the village.
CropsFood Minister Afroza Khanam said in Chattogram that a pilot in three districts will buy paddy straight from farmers to keep middlemen out, possibly paying through mobile banking such as bKash.
EnvironmentEggs gathered over two months from homes, a school and other places in Boalkhali, Chattogram, were incubated on sand in jars; every one hatched, and the young cobras are being prepared for release into the wild.
AgribusinessSalt farmers in Banshkhali, Anwara and Patiya are preparing about 10,000 acres and could start next week if the weather holds, but fear the government's decision to import salt will cost them a fair price.
A joint raid by the consumer rights directorate and BADC found substandard fertiliser being blended at two Sadarghat warehouses; about 40,000 sacks have gone out, some possibly to government stores in BADC sacks.
The state paid Tk 36 a kg for 675 tonnes of boro, Tk 11 above the market; of more than 20 farmers Manab Zamin spoke to, over 15 got only Tk 1,000 for lending their cards, the paper found.
HealthAt Chattogram Medical College Hospital, 48 of 80 dengue patients lay on verandah floors beyond a 32-bed ward, many without mosquito nets; the director wants the CRB railway hospital made a dedicated dengue hospital.
A district administration mobile court in New Chaktai and Bheramarket seized TSP, MOP and DAP, fined two traders Tk 600,000 in all and jailed one for six months.
GalleryAfter the monsoon, Aman rice now covers Gumai Beel in Rangunia, Chattogram; a photo story by Prothom Alo photographer Sourav Das.
HealthConsumer-rights officials fined M R Consumers Products at Bahaddarhat after finding ghee made with no milk at all, from palm oil, artificial flavour and harmful colouring; the stock was destroyed.
HealthDengue had killed 21 people in Chattogram district by the end of September, with Sitakunda and Karnaphuli hardest hit; a week-long mosquito control drive has begun in Karnaphuli.
HealthResearchers from CUET and BUET found four trihalomethanes in 120 samples of Chattogram WASA piped water; the utility says average levels are below WHO guideline values but admits it has no equipment to test for them.
A consumer rights directorate drive around Chattogram Medical College Hospital fined two eateries, a supershop and two pharmacies; cooked food was found stored with raw fish and meat.
GalleryWith dengue patients' families buying malta, imported malta sells for Tk 480 to Tk 500 and local malta for Tk 120 to Tk 130 in Chattogram's retail markets; a photo story from the fruit shops of Kadamtali, Station Road and New Market.
FisheriesIn hilsa season, workers at Chattogram's Fishery Ghat clean the fish and store it in layers of salt; with raw hilsa at Tk 12,000 to Tk 18,000 a maund this year, salted hilsa costs more too.
EnvironmentKnown in Bangladesh as a planted tree, the pabon jhau (Casuarina equisetifolia) has seeded itself into a wild stand at Ichhakhali in Mirsharai, nature writer Mokarram Hossain reports.
EnvironmentOn a 32 km stretch of the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in Mirsarai, vegetables are now grown at 113 spots on the road median where hundreds of jarul, sonalu and oleander trees planted for shade and beauty were cut; the roads department says it will act.
Held twice a week, the market sells Heza, Bahma, Hoyai, Japanese Bantam, Modern Game and other breeds; a rooster costs Tk 1,000 to Tk 10,000 depending on breed.
FisheriesUnder a revenue-budget programme, the upazila fisheries office gave 10 to 15 cm rohu, catla, mrigal and kalibaus fingerlings to ponds of institutions in the municipality and unions.
CUFL restarted on 15 September after six months idle for want of gas, broke down two days later, and returned to urea production on Tuesday afternoon after repairs.
Chattogram WASA will build Karnaphuli Water Treatment Plant Project-3 at Sarafbhata in Rangunia to produce 100 million litres of treated water a day, using the second plant's existing pipeline to reach the city.
Chattogram Medical College Hospital's cardiac surgery unit has six surgeons but, short of staff and equipment, performs at most six or seven operations a month; only one of its four ventilators really works.
On World Rivers Day, photographs of three rivers in Dhaka and Chattogram show factory effluent, vessel oil, floating plastic and two-coloured water.
The seizure of 78 tonnes of urea bound for Myanmar at Mirsarai and Sitakunda in two days has sharpened concern over leakage, hoarding and artificial shortages of subsidised fertiliser ahead of the Boro season; the government says stocks are sufficient.
At Chattogram's Bahaddarhat kitchen market vegetables rose by an average Tk 10 a kg and fish by Tk 20 in a week, with broiler chicken now Tk 180-190 a kg.
World Bank Pink Sheet figures show the June-August average price of palm oil down 1.9 per cent and soybean oil down 2.5 per cent on the previous three months. At Khatunganj in Chattogram, the country's largest edible-oil wholesale market, both have risen by about Tk 300 a maund in six weeks, which t
A 28-year-old agri-entrepreneur in Patiya, Chattogram, has grown the small yellow 'Suryadim' watermelon on 40 decimals of trellised land this monsoon and is selling it at Tk 120 a kilogram.
At Katachhara in Mirsarai, Chattogram, agricultural entrepreneur Muslim Uddin grows papaya, year-round chilli and taro together on one bigha using the sorjan raised-bed method, and expects about Tk 5 lakh from the papaya alone.
After fuel prices rose Tk 20 a litre, truck fares into Chattogram climbed by Tk 6,000-10,000; onion in the Chaktai-Khatunganj wholesale market went from Tk 32-33 to Tk 38-40 a kilo and rice rose Tk 20 a sack.
In Rangunia, Chattogram, Mohammad Nur Uddin planted more than 400 seedlings of two varieties on eight decimals and has nearly a thousand melons on the vines.
About 55,123 acres of forest in Chattogram, Cox's Bazar and Bandarban are occupied, and 572 forest guards patrol the region's 855,968 acres of woodland.
