Discussion Meeting on “Present Condition of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary and Way Forward”

Dhoritri Rokhhay Amra (DHORA) and a local organization Arannya jointly organized a discussion meeting on “Present Condition of Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary and Way Forward” at Hotel Midway Inn, Chunti, Lohagara upazila, Chittagong district on Friday, January 26, 2024 at 5:00 PM. Sultana Kamal, President of the Advisory Committee of ‘DHORA’, participated as the Chief Guest in this meeting. Sharmeen Murshid, Co-Convener of the Convening Committee of ‘DHORA’ presided over the event, and Sharif Jamil, Member Secretary of Convening Committee of ‘DHORA’, was the main discussant. Rafiqul Islam Chowdhury, Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Chittagong Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Department, Fazlul Quader Chowdhury and Abdul Karim Chowdhury Kim, members of the Convening Committee of ‘DHORA’ participated as special guests in the meeting. Sanjida Rahman, coordinator of ‘Chunati Rokhhay Amra’ and member of ‘DHORA’, moderated the entire program and gave the welcome speech.

As part of the event, representatives of ‘DHORA’ interacted with residents and concerned persons living in Chunati about the environmental problems and solutions there and visited important sites including Brick Kiln at Lambasia in Satgarh Forest Beat, areas behind Four Seasons Restaurant and Resort at Chunati Forest Beat, Railway Crossing and Wildlife Research Center at Jangalia Forest Beat, and Lutu Miar Ghona of Sufinagar.

Chief guest Sultana Kamal said, “Today we came to Chunati to join the program ‘Chunati Rakhhay Amra’ to protect the Chunti Wildlife Sanctuary and were shocked to see the horrible destructions on the environment of this rare nature in the name of development, especially cutting hills, forests and encroaching rivers. Instances of such mutilation of the lifestream of nature and wildlife are rare even in these days of moral decadence. If we unite our efforts, there’s still a chance to preserve our most invaluable natural resource”.

Keynote speaker Sharif Jamil said, “Organized social movement will be developed with the common people of the respective areas to protect the environment. During our visit to Chunati forest, we witnessed deforestation, hill cutting, and illegal encroachment of forest land. Discussing with the local people, it was realized that a certain group of people formed a nexus to exploit the nature day after day indiscriminately. At the same time, during the visit, we noticed that forest trees, hills, and wildlife habitats have been destroyed in the name of government projects (various projects including the construction of Chittagong-Cox’s Bazar railway line).”