Gowainghat (Sylhet) Correspondent //

Illegal stone extraction is underway at night at a place called Jhumpar of Balighat Temple in East Jaflong Union of Gowainghat Upazila of Sylhet using a Feludar machine.

Numerous crop lands, betel nut gardens, tea gardens and homesteads, including the Sri Sri Balibari Temple, are under threat due to stone extraction by cutting the Jhumpar.

Since the autocracy of Hasina government fled due to the student-public movement on August 5, there have been widespread looting incidents in various places including the stone quarry in Jaflong. Stone worth about 100 crore taka has been looted from the Jaflong stone quarry alone.

Assistant Director of the Sylhet Environment Department Md. Badrul Huda filed 3 separate cases against more than 50 local Awami League and BNP leaders and activists on charges of involvement in stone looting. But even though several months have passed since the incident, the accused in the stone looting case are still out of reach for mysterious reasons.

It is learnt that some influential BNP leaders, who looted Jaflong during the time of the fallen Awami League, are behind the scenes trying to bribe those cronies in exchange for large sums of money.

During the on-site inspection, locals said that under the leadership of Henry Lamin and truck worker leader Chhamed, a festival is going on in Ballapunji, Temple’s Zoompar, Zeropoint, Babul’s Zoom area, Ballapunji Government Primary School boundary wall, and the stone quarry area adjacent to Jaflong Bridge, where they are illegally cutting soil and extracting stones using giant machines.

Due to illegal stone extraction using the banned environmentally destructive Feluda machine, there is a risk that the Sri Sri Balibari Temple, the old tourist spot of Ballaghat, Ballapunji Government Primary School, playground, hundreds of hectares of cropland, tea gardens, Jaflong Bridge, Jaflong Bazar, Nayabasti, Kandubasti village settlements and Khasia community, betel nut gardens and surrounding areas will disappear into the river.

Several people from the area who did not want to be named said that the local administration is sharing huge amounts of money with the stone miners, which is why the administration remains silent. As a result, the Awami League and BNP have joined hands and continued the illegal stone extraction work by cutting the soil with Feluda machines in Birdarpa.
Although the task force led by the local administration conducted an operation, before the operation team reached the scene, the stone-cutting gang got information that illegal stone-extraction activities were going on in the Ballaghat Jhum Par area by cutting the soil of the temple.

Jaflong, one of the country’s tourist centers, is a sanctuary for travelers who are thirsty for the imaginary scenery of nature’s beautiful landscape. Thousands of tourists from different parts of the country and abroad come to see this town surrounded by the foothills of the Meghalaya hills and the natural beauty of Jaflong, the daughter of nature. But with the evolution of time, Jaflong, the daughter of nature, is losing its own charm. Today, Jaflong, the daughter of nature, is defeated by the leaders of these stone-cutting gangs, the Awami League and BNP.

Although the Department of Environment has issued a ban in this regard, no legal action is being taken by the administration. Due to the negligence of the Department of Environment and the negligence of the police, tea gardens are being washed away by the river, the natural environment is being destroyed, and the common people are losing their cropland and habitat. Although there is a provision to obtain permission from the relevant department of the Ministry of Minerals to extract and remove stones from these areas, no one is even close to these rules.

In addition, the Jhumpar area of ​​the temple is a conflicted and risky area. In the past, five workers died when the earth bank collapsed and buried them during illegal stone extraction in the area of ​​the Sri Sri Balibari temple. In the past, i.e. in December 2006, there was a fight between the conflicting people over the extraction of stones from the said land, during which a school student named Liton from Kandubasti village adjacent to the Jhumpar area tragically died.

In this regard, Sarkar Mohammad Tofail Ahmed, Officer-in-Charge of Gowainghat Police Station, said that the police patrols of the police station are continuing to stop illegal sand and stone extraction.

Assistant Commissioner Bhumi Saidul Islam said that several cases have been filed for illegal stone extraction in the Jaflong ECA area. Regular drives are also being conducted.

Gowainghat Upazila Executive Officer Ratan Kumar Adhikari said that a case has been filed by the Department of Environment due to illegal stone extraction in the Jaflong ECA area. In addition, despite conducting drives at various times, it is not possible to stop the stone miners.

In this regard, Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Sher Mohammad. Mahbub Murad said that action will be taken against those involved in the looting of natural resources, stone and sand, through legal process. Despite government restrictions, stone extraction is carried out freely by cutting and digging. Local residents are seeking the good attention of the higher authorities of the Department of Environment to maintain the beauty of the tourist center Jaflong.

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