Nur Jahan Begum, 48, once had an abode on the bank Foys Lake, a natural water body nestled in low-lying hills at Akbar Shah on the outskirts of the port city of Chittagong, until the area was handed over to Concord, a private realtor.
Concord took lease of the entire Foys Lake, which flows through 336 acres of land, in the early 2000s and turned it into an amusement park. Nur Jajan Begum and thousands of people who lived on the Railway land were evicted and forced to seek shelter in nearby hills at Bijoy Nagar in 2004.
The company gave Tk 4,000 to the Nur Jahans family to move to the nearby hill.
Nur Jahan and her husband Mujibur Rahman and their children, along with many other families, razed several low-lying hills at Bijoy Nagar and built bamboo- and -tin-shed homes there.
But a tragedy struck in June 2022 when heavy monsoon rain triggered landslides in the area. Two young sons of Nur Jahan were killed after their homes were buried under mountains of soil.
The two brothers Liton, 23, and Emon, 14, were sleeping at 3:00 am when the landslide occurred. Rescuers had to remove huge piles of soil to recover their bodies.
Getting information, the rescue team of Chittagong Fire Service and Police rushed to the spot and recovered two bodies covered with blankets.
The incident was a wake-up call for the authorities last year, and illegal hill cutting once again came into the limelight for the media and authorities. It is alleged that most of the Hill has been razed illegally in the Akbar Shah area (Ward no 9) of Chattogram City Corporation.
This correspondent then started an investigation into the issue and found out why Hills are the chosen places for habitation over plain land. The story tells how some development projects have destroyed the hills giving them a fancy name-development projects- which could otherwise be called Project for Hill Cutting, by Chattogram City Corporation. In the guise of the development projects, a local Councilor is taking advantage of hill cutting, and, like Nur Jahan Begums family many others pain and sufferings is lost under the heaps of mud and soil.
Regarding the project, all authorities concerned -- the Department of Environment, Bangladesh Railway and Concord Authority-- have issued several letters to Chattogram City Corporation (CCC) while they remain silent regarding replying to the letters.
This correspondent has visited the hilly areas of Bijoy Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Zia Nagar and North Lake City housing and seen that the entrance road has been made by cutting the hills at ninety-degree angle instead of forty-five degrees angle, keeping the inhabitants under the risk of the landslide. Around 554 families are living at or near the foot of the hills building semi-pucca homes, cutting the slopes of the hills. Some homes and stairs have been raised on the slopes of the hills. Toilets built in the hills are always muddy and slippery during the monsoon. All the hills have been cut haphazardly, which also poses risks not only the people but also the environment. Hill cutting also leads to deforestation giving rise to landslides.
During a recent visit to the area, this correspondent found that authorities constructed the one-kilometer road by cutting the hill that spans across Beltalighona to Baitul Aman Jame Masjid. A part of another hill, the site of Agrani Housing, has collapsed onto the under-construction road.
The city is called the city of hills because most of the big hills are situated in the Akbar Shah ward to the Sitakundo area. But most of the hills have been destroyed by the local councilor in the name of some government projects. A few families were living there, but now all the hills have became colonies, said Advocate Akhtar Kabir Chowdhury, president of the Chittagong city unit of Shacheton Nagorik Committee under Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).
Recalling his childhood memories, he also said the ward was the silent zone because of the hills; now, it has the highest population density.
City Corporation started razing the hills several years ago and during the Covid-19 pandemic, it increased because DoE and police failed to keep an eye on them, he added.
Digging the truth, this correspondent has found some letters in which all the concerned bodies alleged that without any official permissions, CCC started the so-called development project and encouraged the marginalized communities to move there making them vulnerable to landslides.
The story started when Concord Authority built a resort on government-owned land at Foys Lake on a build, operate and transfer (BOT) basis in a 50-year agreement. They entered Chittagong at the end of 2005 and started the eviction of people who had lived there; Nur Jahan Begums family was one of them.
In 2018, one such project was titled he Livelihoods Improvement of Urban Poor Communities (LIUPC), which aims to reduce poverty and improve the living conditions of poor people who are living in urban areas. All the city corporation wards have not seen much development works, where poor and climate-displaced/migrant people have been living and have got priority in the project. The total cost of the project is Tk 33.28 crore.
Akbar Shah area under Ward no 9 is one of the places where the projects have been implemented and most of the hills in the city are located here. Under the projects, several hills were erased by the authority to build roads and drains. CCC never took any permission from the Chattogram Department of Environment (DoE) and its owner, Bangladesh Railway (East) for the projects.
In this regard, on December 28, 2022 and in early 2023 (February 13), the Environment Department issued a letter to the City Corporation to stop the construction works which said-"CCC has erased the 13,300 cubic feet hills at Beltoligona area under Akbar Shah area to construct 1700 feet -long concrete road which put the area as well as the people at the risk of landslide. There was also a signboard hanging which said a drain was also built and funded by UNDP. All these hill-cutting projects are going on without permission from the DoE, which is considered a violation of the Environment Law, 1995. In this regard, CCC must place a written statement and be present for hearing on February 28."
However, DoE hasn received any responses to the two letters, and on April 11, last year, it filed a case against CCC, accusing it of hill cutting in the area.
Hillol Biswas, Director of DoE, confirmed the news and said a case has been filed with Akbar Shah Police Station against seven persons including two Executive Engineers, sub-assistant engineers of CCC and Jahirul Alam Jasim, Councilor of Akbar Shah ward.
He also said it is alleged that Jahurul Alam Jasim, the ward councillor, has razed part of the hills to build a primary school in the area. He also made some plots, cut the hills, and sold them to low-income people.
The case is under investigation, and if the report proves involvement of any other person or organisation, legal action will be taken against them, Biswas added.
Meanwhile, the LIUPC project will run all 12 city corporations; Chattogram City is one of the areas where the whole project is funded by The Local Government Division (LGD), Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development & Cooperatives with financial and technical support from the government of Bangladesh, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).The LIUPC project under the National Urban Poverty Reduction Programme (NUPRP) to reduce urban poverty in Bangladesh.
On August 14, 2023, the authority of Foys Lake Concord issued a letter to the Estate Officer of Bangladesh Railway, and the letter said (Quote from the letter) that-Under the LIUPC project, the roads have been made after razing the hills and supplied utility, water for their living which encourages them to live there under the risk of landslide.
The hill destroyers are razing the hills, cleaning up the forests and polluting the lake waters, which also threaten the tourists safety and security along with its water and biodiversity. In the letter, Concord urged the Railway authority to take necessary action to stop the illegal occupation of the hills and environmental damage.
On December 19, the authority issued another letter to Railway Bangladesh, DoE and District Administration regarding the same issue to urge them to stop deforestation and hill cutting and save the environment and water from pollution. This correspondent has copies of the letter.
Major Enamul Karim (Rt), general manager of Concord Entertainment Company Ltd, Foys Lake confirmed it and said we are hopeful that the authorities will take action.
An investigation team has visited the areas, and they assured us that legal action will be taken, though it takes too much time, he said, adding that they are optimistic of a result.
The officials also confessed that when they evicted the families who lived here, the number was a few, but now, the number has increased by hundreds of times, and it is difficult to get back to the land.
Receiving the letter, the Chief Estate Officer (East) of Bangladesh Railway sent a letter to CCC, DoE, and Chittagong Divisional Commissioner on September 12, 2023 regarding the LIUPC project; the letter (Quote from the letter) said-a good number of people has occupied the land at the hill illegally which are owned by Bangladesh Railway at Lake City, Bijoy Nagar area near Foys Lake in the Akbar Shah thana. Under the supervision of Chittagong City Corporation and funded by UNDP, they provided water and electricity and constructed roads to increase their living standard, which might cause increasing illegal occupation.
This correspondent has copy of the letter, and City Corporation hasn replied.
Sujon Chowdhury, Chief Estate Officer (East) of Bangladesh Railway, confirmed to issuing the letter and said CCC is yet to reply to the letter. In a meeting at the Divisional Commissioners office, I discussed the issue verbally with the Chief Executive Officer of CCC. With the cooperation of the local councillor, some displaced and migrated people have occupied the land and built their homes.
Citing the shortage of estate officials of the Railway who hadn looked after all the lands they owned, Chowdhury claimed that the local councillor, with his political power, had razed the hills and leveled up the lands. Railway Authority, along with the officials of District Administration, has tried to evict those living in the hills, but he failed, he added.
(The investigation was conducted as part of Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) fellowship.)
