Biodiversity starts thriving in St Martin’s island after tourism restrictions

With tourists barred from visiting the coral reef island, Saint Martin’s, on Bay of Bengal from 1 February, the island’s deserted beaches are now teeming with snails and oysters.

Green mangrove forest and Keya plant (Pandanus tectorius) are also emerging at Diyarmatha and Chheradia on the southern side of the island.

The 8-square kilometer Saint Martin’s is the only coral-reef island in the Bay of Bengal.

Located in Teknaf Upazila of Cox’s Bazar, tourists used to be able to visit the island until 31 March in other years. However, the island was open for tourists until 31 January this year. While earlier 5,000 tourists would visit the island every day, only 2,000 tourists were allowed to visit it every day this season.

Various studies have shown that Saint Martin has 1,076 species of flora and fauna, including coral, algae, turtles, snails, oysters, marine fish, birds, mammals, and crabs.

The island’s sandbanks are also the nesting grounds for the Olive Ridley sea turtles, one the endangered species of sea turtles of the world.

However, the island has become endangered due to uncontrolled infrastructure building, influx of unchecked number of tourists and the consequential environmental pollution.

The Department of Environment (DoE) organised a two-day cleaning campaign across the island after the tourists were banned. The authorities used drones to identify and remove garbage on the island. Volunteers removed 930 kg of waste in the campaign.

Md Jamir Uddin, Deputy Director of the Cox’s Bazar office of the DoE, told Prothom Alo that a team from the department reached the island on 5 February, and identified the places where waste was lying through multiple drones.

He said the removal of this waste began on 12 February. Nearly 90 per cent of the waste was chips packets, polythene and packets of biscuits. Earlier, plastic waste was removed from various areas including beaches in a joint initiative of a private organisation and the DoE.

The official of DoE added that as tourists were barred and movement of battery-run auto-rickshaw and motorcycle stopped, a layer of snails and oysters had already started to accumulate on at least a 7-8 kilometer stretch of the beach in the southeast and west of the island.

Snails and oysters prevent erosion of the beach and work as bulwark for sand dunes. Earlier, people used to collect snails and oyster from the beach and smuggle them to Myanmar. Furniture and garland are made from snails and oysters.

The DoE declared Saint Martin an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) back in 1999 to protect its biodiversity.

Lastly on 4 January 2023, according to the wildlife (conservation and security) act, the environment ministry declared 1,743 square kilometres of area in the Bay of Bengal adjoining Saint Martin’s island as a reserved area.

Earlier in 2016, ECA management rules were framed under the Bangladesh Environment Protection Act, 1995.

Nur Mohammad, 50, a local trader of Saint Martin said locals do not usually walk on beaches without any reason. They do not usually tread in Chheradia or Diarmatha area. But the tourists roam around the island in different vehicles.

The island has several kilometers of pucca road in the middle but going to Diyarmatha and Chheradia requires use of beaches. When vehicles ply on the beaches, various marine animals like snails, oysters and crabs get killed and biodiversity including corals and algae get destroyed.

He further said that many hotels, resorts and cottages have been built in ecologically critical and travel-prohibited areas, including Diyarmatha and Golachipa, on the island. Guests of these hotels have to travel via the beach.

According to him, as there are no tourists, marine life and biodiversity are being protected. Local people are fishing in the sea for a living, some are drying fish, while others are busy cultivating vegetables and watermelons.

Nazir Hossain, member of ward no. 9 of Saint Martin island, told Prothom Alo that green mangroves are growing in over one-acre beaches on the southern part, including Diyarmatha, of the island. The trees are growing fast. Locals are being monitored to ensure that they do not destroy the mangrove.

Saiful Islam, a resident of the southern part of the island, said the whirlwind created by the propellers of tourist ships used to make the blue water of the sea muddy. Water bottles, polythene, and packets of chips used to float in the sea water.

He pointed out that since the ship traffic has stopped, the sea water has now got back to its azure color. Plastic waste is no longer visible in the sea water.

DoE officials said a set of important decisions were taken in a meeting on 2 February to protect Saint Martin’s island. The garbage littered in the island was identified and removed as the first step.

As part of the next step, initiatives such as arranging drinkable water for the local people, preserving biodiversity, taking up power generation projects from waste and rehabilitating unemployed people will be taken, they added.

Abdur Rahim Jihadi, president of the Saint Martin Island Hotel Owners Association, told Prothom Alo that none of over 230 hotels, resorts, and cottages on the island have any environmental clearance.

Ibrahim Khalil, chief executive of the environmental organisation, Youth Environment Society (YES) in Cox’s Bazar, said that the island’s environment has improved by implementing the initiative to limit tourists for the first time. Due to strict monitoring during the travel period (December-January), coral was not collected from the sea.

He further stated that absence of tourists on the beach has created an environment for mother turtles to lay eggs. Red crabs, snails, and oysters have also been bred.