Goal: Evaluating the existing legal regime of the ecologically critical area Saint Martin's island, Bangladesh.
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| Saint Martin's island Fishermen at work. Abu Raihan Muhammed Khalid |
ResearchGate Project page: https://www.researchgate.net/projec...
The common picture of the island dwellers is one of disengagement with the crisis. Empty plots of land are seen everywhere, ponds filed with garbage and houses extremely poor conditions.
This is in a stark contradiction with the other 'side' of the island, the tourist industry side, which is booming. Millions of taka are changing hands every winter when thousands of tourists are pouring in every day to the island for vacation. Hotel rooms are sold twice the original price. Restaurants are compelled to brought in fishes from outside the island, from Teknaf and Cox's Bazar and pretend that they were caught on the island to keep up with the expectations of the tourists from this island of fishing folks.
We have been told by the residents that none of the hotels in Saint Martin's is owned by the island residents, except one. We have been told that no islander is employed in any of the hotels. There is only one islander employed at the Blue Marine Hotel.
The only business the islanders are getting from the tourism industry is the Rickshaw van, and the bicycle renting business, I am told. But even in the Rickshaw van business, the islanders only own them, they are plied by outsiders, and they are the ones making the big money.
We have only seen two households with a reserve of hay in the entire island. Stored hay is an indicator of sustainable subsistence agriculture of the household in rural Bangladesh.
Most of the houses are made of shards of polythene on the roof and bamboo or polythene shards walls. Most of the houses are unrecognizable in their shapes as houses. They are long past their repair date.
Agricultural fields are empty and barren. There are signs of rice farming in many plots. That crop was grown in the rainy season and was harvested few days before the winter started. Nothing has been planted since. I have asked the islanders the reason; some indicated that they do not need to because they are earning good money from the tourism industry. But I could see no signs of that affluence in the island, there are hungry children playing on the beach, begging. This and the dilapidated houses tell that the islanders are not well.
There is extreme poverty and discrimination in this small island.
[From Banglapedia]: St Martin’s Island a small island in the northeast of the bay of bengal, about 9 km south of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsular tip and forming the southernmost part of Bangladesh. It is about 8 km west of the northwest coast of Myanmar at the mouth of the river naf. The island lies between 92°18' and 92°21'E longitudes and 20°34' and 20°39'N latitudes. The local people call it Narikel Jinjira. It is almost flat and is 3.6m above the mean sea level. The 9.66 km wide channel between the mainland and the island is much shallower than the open sea southwest of the island.
The island is 7.315 km long and is aligned NNW and SSE. Geographically, it is divided into three parts. The northern part is called Narikel Jinjira or Uttarpara and is 2,134m long and 1,402m wide. The southern part is known as Dakshinpara, which is 1,929m long, with a narrow tail of 1,890m towards the southeast, and a maximum width of 975m. A narrow central belt or Maddhyapara connects the two parts. The length and the width of this belt are about 1,524m and 518m respectively and the narrowest collar is known as Golachipa. In addition to the main island there are a number of tiny islets ranging from 100 to 500 sq m which are locally known as Chheradia or Siradia which means separated island.
There is a shallow lagoon in the middle of Uttarpara and it is connected to the sea during high tide by a narrow channel on the western coast. The topsoil of Uttarpara consists of alluvial sands mixed with shells of molluscs. There are two small dead lagoons and a stretch of marshy land in Dakshinpara. Fish landing sites, bazars and schools are present only in Uttarpara.
The population is about 3,700 and most of them are fishermen belonging to 535 families. One hundred eighty-two species of wildlife are recorded from the island. Of these, 4 species are amphibians, 28 reptiles, 130 birds and 20 mammals. tourism to the northern part of the island exists during four months (November to February). The most densely populated part is Jinjira. There is scarcity of sweet water on the island. Only a few ponds and a number of tubewells supply sweet water for drinking as well as for cultivation. Though the island falls in the monsoon zone, the climate is much influenced by the sea. The main vegetation is coconut, betel nut and bamboo. Coconut trees are abundant and more concentrated in Jinjira. http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php...
The Study shall evaluate the existing laws, policies, plans and actions of the Government of Bangladesh for the governance of the ECA to assess their effectiveness in attaining the goals of Article 18A of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh and Section 5 of the Environmental Conservation Act, 1995 (Act I of 1995).
Study Plan:
The legal component of the Study shall focus on the legal regime of the St. Martin's Island. We shall look into the following areas:
1. Governance Framework
2. Existing law
3. Weakness of the law
4. Suggestions
In order to do that we shall examine:
1. The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
2. National Sectoral and Holistic Policies of the Government of Bangladesh.
3. National Sectoral and Holistic Plans, Strategies, Guideline etc.
4. Bangladesh Code (BC)
5. Bangladesh Gazette
We shall also examine the court decisions re:
1. Section 5 of the Environment Conservation Act, 1995;
2. The Ecologically Critical Area Rules 2016;
3. Decisions regarding ECA (Ecologically Critical Area); and
4. Protected area
in Writ Cases under Article 102 of the Constitution of Bangladesh.
In order to do that we shall examine the following law reports:
1. Dhaka Law Reports (DLR),
2. Bagladesh Law Chronicle (BLC),
3. Bangladesh Legal Decisions (BLD),
4. Mainstream Law Reports (MLR),
5. Bangladesh Law Times (BLT)
6. The Lawyers (ADC), etc.
We shall make a note of the
1. Name of the case/Parties, e.g. Dr. Mohiuddin Farooque v Bangladesh etc., and
2. The reference, e.g. 49 DLR (AD) 1, etc., then
3. The ratio decidendi of the case, i.e. the principal rationale of the decision.
Project start date: 1 January 2017
Methods: Field visit, Interview, Desk review
