Fewer cases despite rising environmental pollution in Chattogram

Karnaphuli River, the lifeline of Chattogram, has long been dying due to encroachment and pollution. Over the years, the river has turned into a dumping ground for household and industrial waste. Researchers have recently found microplastic particles in its water and sediment, increasing health and environmental risks.

Not only the river—Chattogram’s hills are also under assault. A total of 120 hills out of more than 200 have disappeared in the past four decades.

The city, once surrounded by rivers and hills, now suffers from severe air pollution. According to a 2021 survey by Stamford University’s Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies, Chattogram ranks among the most polluted districts in the country. The city’s average air quality index was 165.31 micrograms, far exceeding the ideal level of 65 micrograms.

Because of this continued “assault” on nature, the once-beautiful and scenic Chattogram is now facing an environmental crisis. Those involved in environmental destruction often escape with fines instead of imprisonment, even though the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act provides for both jail terms and fines.

At present, some 1,323 cases are pending in the Chattogram Divisional Environment Court. Among these, only 72, just 5.5 per cent, fall under the Environment Conservation Act. The rest are criminal and civil cases. Because of the small number of environmental cases, the court also tries criminal and civil ones.

Environmental lawyers allege that the Department of Environment (DoE) itself files very few cases, preferring financial penalties instead.

Ordinary citizens and organisations cannot file cases directly in the environment court, and even when cases are filed, they remain pending for years. The DoE, however, claims that the number of cases has been increasing compared to previous years.

Environmental cases under the Environment Conservation Act are tried at the Chattogram Divisional Environment Court. In the past three years, the court has handed down prison sentences in only one case.

The verdict came on 17 April this year, sentencing 11 accused to one and a half years in prison each for hill cutting in Khurushkul, Cox’s Bazar, under Section 15(1)(5) of the Environment Conservation Act, 1995. All the accused in that 2018 case remain fugitives.

Meanwhile, many cases remain pending for years due to the absence of witnesses. For example, a case was filed on 7 July 2007 against a certain Wazed Ali under the Environment Conservation Act for cutting hills in the Jhilongja area of Cox’s Bazar. The DoE’s inspector Faizul Kabir submitted the charge sheet on 10 August 2023, but none of the four witnesses have appeared in court.

From January to August this year, the Chattogram Environment Court disposed of 14 cases; 100 in 2024, and 30 in 2023. Most of these ended with fines. Only if the fines go unpaid do the courts order imprisonment.
For example, a case was filed on 3 April 2021 against brick kiln owner Syed Hossain in Dabua, Raozan, for using a 120-foot traditional chimney. On 26 May this year, after the accused confessed, the court fined him Tk 200,000, which he promptly paid.

Lawyers say that since the punishment is mostly monetary, accused persons often appeal in higher courts; some are acquitted, and others pay the fine to settle the matter without serving any sentence.

Public prosecutor of the environment court, Humayun Rashid Talukder, told Prothom Alo that the Environment Conservation Act provides for both imprisonment and fines. In most cases, only fines are imposed. The prosecution will request that imprisonment also be considered.

The mobile courts run by the DoE also mostly impose financial penalties. In the first eight months of this year, 10 cases were filed, resulting in fines totaling Tk 10.6 million.

These mobile courts hand down punishments for offenses such as illegal polythene use, unauthorised brick kilns, emission of black smoke, noise pollution, hill cutting, filling of water bodies, and pollution caused by construction materials.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, environmental lawyer and adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, expressed astonishment upon hearing that only 5.5 per cent of cases in the Chattogram Environment Court relate to environmental issues.

Speaking to Prothom Alo over phone, she said that given the scale of hill cutting, river grabbing, deforestation, and industrial pollution in Chattogram, the number of cases should never be this low.

She added that victims face bureaucratic hurdles when trying to file cases directly in the environment court.

Rizwana added that the environment court has been made so weak that it can hardly provide effective remedies. These obstacles must be removed. Otherwise, there will be no justice against the powerful groups responsible for environmental destruction.