Nizam Uddin Lavlu from Ramgarh :
Though World Environment Day is being celebrated worldwide today on June 5 including Bangladesh, there is no effective role in protecting the environment in the hilly areas of the country.
Due to unscientific cultivation of Jum cultivation, cassava, turmeric and kachu, the fertility of the hills of Chittagong Hill Tracts is rapidly being lost.
On the other hand, these hills are gradually being destroyed due to indiscriminate hill cutting and soil erosion and collapse. Experts fear, if this continues, in the near future the hills of the mountainous region will disappear.
A great disaster can happen to the environment of the mountainous region.
Therefore, experts have expressed the opinion that it is necessary to take immediate action by the government to protect the mountain.
The tribals of Chittagong Hill Tracts have been cultivating Jum in the hills for generations.
Jum is cultivated in unscientific and primitive methods.
According to the investigation, every year in January and February in the three hilly districts of Khagrachari, Bandarban and Rangamati, the tribals select hills or hills and clear the forest for Jum cultivation.
After drying in the sun for the month of March, these forests were burnt in April.
Later, when the rains came, the seeds of various vegetables including rice, cotton, sesame, tobacco, corn were planted by making holes on the entire hill.
Soil experts said that due to the burning of hills for Jum cultivation in extreme heat, the soil dries up and becomes bricks. It creates cracks in small hills.
Rainwater flows through the cracks and landslides begin in a terrible way.
According to a survey report conducted by the Land Degradation Monitoring Task Force, about 17,000 square kilometers of land in the hilly areas of Bangladesh are facing erosion.
Unplanned cultivation, especially Jum cultivation in hilly areas, has been mentioned as the reason for this land degradation in the report.
According to a research report conducted by Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute with the financial support of Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, 100 to 120 Mt of soil per hectare is being eroded annually in three hilly districts.
The report states that the rate of land erosion in Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban is at dangerous levels.
Massive landslides occur in three hill districts every year due to heavy rainfall during the monsoon season.
It also causes loss of life.
Meanwhile, unplanned cultivation of cassava, kachu, and turmeric is taking place in small, large and medium hills and hills in the hilly areas.
Due to unscientific digging of the hill soil and extensive cultivation, the hills are getting seriously damaged.
According to related sources, cassava has been cultivated in unscientific manner in about 7 thousand acres of hills and dunes in three hill districts this year.
Among them, 6 thousand 600 acres have been cultivated in Khagrachari district.