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Download PDF Following an incident of fire in the eco-sensitive Lawachhara National Park during a seismic survey, US oil company Chevron Bangladesh suspended its survey work and launched an investigation.
On Saturday, a fire broke out in the forest area where Chevron was conducting a three dimensional seismic survey for better understanding of the reserves of the nearby Moulavibazar gas field. Locals and forest department personnel doused the fire in an acre of the forestland known as Khashiya Punji.
Amid concerns expressed by environmentalists, Chevron last month started the survey in the forest located close to the sealed-off Magurchhara gas field which blew out in 1997 due to poor operation of Unocal (stake taken over by Chevron).
Chevron in a press release yesterday claimed, “To date, no evidence has been found that the fire is anyway connected to Chevron’s seismic activities.”
It added that the cause of the fire has not yet been identified and Chevron has initiated an investigation into the fire. Till the report of initial findings is received, the survey will remain suspended. “The safety of people, wildlife and the forest flora and fauna is Chevron’s top priority,” it added.
Chevron claimed, “A zone of approximately 10 by 20 metres appears to have been affected, which is less than a 10th of the size of a football field. From initial reports, it appears that the fire had no major impact on the wildlife or the environment with superficial damage on the ground and limited impact on trees.”
Meanwhile, Petrobangla sent a general manager from Dhaka to the forest to investigate the cause of fire.
The fire broke out near the railway lines set up during the British era. Grameenphone was installing an optical fibre cable alongside the rail lines. It was asked to suspend the installation work and it did so accordingly, said Syed Yamin Bakht, Grameenphone general manager of information.
Our Moulavibazar correspondent reports: Cracks have developed in 30 man-made structures in the forest during the last three days due to the explosions of the seismic survey.
Chevron started triggering the explosions to carry out its survey Friday morning spreading panic among the locals and wild animals as the deafening explosions jolted the area violently.
Environmentalists and different organisations have been protesting the government decision to let Chevron conduct the survey in the rare rain forest.
Chevron Bangladesh is allegedly not following the rules accordingly for conducting the controversial survey.
Even though the company earlier said no vehicles would run in the forest and no heavy machines would be used during the survey, the company had deployed heavy equipment and vehicles to transport the survey equipment inside the forest, according to members of the co-management committee of the Nishargo Support Project of the forest department. Nishargo Support Project is working there to preserve the biodiversity and environment of the rain forest.
The co-management committee during a meeting on April 20 decided to impose restrictions on the plying of any kind of vehicles in the main area of the Lawachhara Forest.
Chevron had completed the first phase of the survey on March 31 and started the second phase from April 1.
According to a source in the forest department, the Ministry of Forest and Environment gave permission to Chevron Bangladesh to conduct the survey in Lawachhara National Park relaxing the condition mentioned in section 23/3 of the Bangladesh Wildlife Act, 1974.
Members of the Nishargo project told The Daily Star about 250 workers were working deep inside the forest for the survey. At least 400 holes have been drilled on the ground, they added.
The project members claimed even though Chevron earlier told them that Chevron would include environment and wildlife experts and journalists in their survey team for monitoring, in reality it has not taken any one in the team other than its employees.
BIODIVERSITY OF LAWACHHARA
Nishargo Support Project President Prof Rafiqur Rahman and members Ananda Mohan Singha and Siddek Ali said Lawachhara Forest with 1,250 hectares of land was declared a “National Park” in 1996. There are 167 species of plants, 20 species of orchids, four species of amphibious animals, six species of reptiles, 20 species of mammals, and 246 species of birds.
There are spiders of over 100 species, different types of monkeys, wild chicken, crabs, fishing cats, squirrels, porcupines, snakes, butterflies, different warms and insects, wild pigs, lizards, martens, and nearly extinct animals like gibbon, blackface monkey, mirage, modest monkey, white tiger, short-tail monkey, civet etc.
Among the plants, there are cha-polish, dumur, blackberry, rose berry, teak, talsur, batna, awaal, kanak, bonak, rata, iron wood, jarul, amloki, udol, raktan, lotkon, gummer and bamboo.
Members of the project say the environment and biodiversity of the forest is under threat due to Chevron’s survey. The co-management committee wrote to higher authorities of the government requesting the survey be denied permission. Their appeal was ignored.
Forest and environment experts say spring is very important for trees, plants and birds as this is the season of growth and breeding. But, the US oil company has chosen this period for their survey. The forest environment will be hampered due to this survey conducted during spring, a number of experts said.
According to their opinion, it is possible to damage the trees by digging holes on the ground. They say microbes in and around the holes could be damaged.
A forest department source said as there is no complete list of the plants and animals in Lawachhara National Park, there is an apprehension that a number of species could be damaged or even extinct.
Some rare species may enter human habitat or get killed in the jolts from the drillings and explosions. Problems may also arise in future from the holes, they said.
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