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Chakaria Sundarbans: A mangrove forest killed by aid and greed
Restoring a forest is not impossible—especially mangroves. However, the soil in Chakaria is so polluted that bringing back the forest there is complicated
en.prothomalo.com
Chakaria Sundarbans: A mangrove forest killed by aid and greed
Partha Shankar Saha &
SM Hanif Dhaka and Chakaria
Updated: 25 Jul 2025, 18: 38
Once 30 sq km of thriving forest, now just one tree stands—felled by shrimp farming, human avarice and ADB-World Bank funding SM Hanif
We are telling the story of a forest that has been reduced to a single mangrove tree. Can a single tree make a forest? Certainly not. But once this was a rich and thriving mangrove forest, home to thousands of species of trees, shrubs and animals. It spanned more than 30 square kilometers. Adjacent to the sea, its lower lands would be inundated during high tide, teeming with various kinds of marine fish. The forest and local communities shared a deep and interdependent bond.
Today, about eight kilometers from Chakaria’s upazila headquarters in Cox’s Bazar, near the New Mosque area of Fasiakhali, two "Sundari" trees can be seen. But in truth, it is one tree—the roots of both trunks are the same. Just 20 feet away lies the Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar railway line. The area around it is sparsely populated.
One recent afternoon, we visited this lone tree. There were no birds chirping in its branches. Only silence, as if the tree stands alone in mourning for a forest long gone. It is a living witness to the destruction of an entire ecosystem.
It was there we met local resident Abdul Latif. For him, Chakaria was synonymous with the Sundarbans. He personally witnessed the gradual disappearance of the forest. Latif now lives in Shogir Shahkata of Dulahazara Union in Chakaria, though his ancestral home is in Badarkhali.
“We used to fish in the Sundarbans as children,” says Abdul Latif. “We would go there to collect golpata (nipa palm). There were Sundari, Gewa, Goran, Keora, Dhundul, and golpata trees. We also saw tigers, deer, monkeys, langurs, wild cats, crocodiles, snakes—so much wildlife. Now it’s all gone. Nothing remains except fish enclosures and salt fields. Only a single Sundari tree stands today. People now come just to see that.”
But it’s not just the disappearance of a forest. With it, local communities lost their source of fuel. Natural fisheries vanished. People whose livelihoods depended on the forest lost their jobs. Wetlands were destroyed. Soil salinity increased. Biodiversity suffered. And the natural buffer that protected the coast from cyclones and tidal surges was wiped out. The financial cost of this destruction is also massive.
Economist Hossain Zillur Rahman told Prothom Alo, “Chakaria shows us how, under the patronage of multinational agencies, so-called state-led development projects can destroy a rich natural treasure. It’s a mix of flawed development philosophy, misguided plans by lending agencies, and the greed of privileged classes in the state. We’re already facing the consequences of this destruction. And its impacts will linger for a long time.”
Location of the Chakaria Sundarbans
The Chakaria Sundarbans was once one of the oldest mangrove forests in the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh is home to three distinct types of Sundarbans: the world’s largest, located in the Khulna region; the second-largest, the now-vanished Chakaria Sundarbans; and the third, an artificially regenerated mangrove zone in the Barishal and Bhola regions. The Chakaria Sundarbans was once surrounded by water on all sides.
In its prime, the dense Chakaria Sundarbans was bordered on the east by the Arakan Road, on the northeast by human settlements, agricultural land, and salt fields, and to the south lay the Maheshkhali Channel. The forest area on the western bank of the Matamuhuri River was known as Rampur, while the eastern portion was called Charan Dwip.
Chakaria Upazila town lies along the route from Chattogram to Cox’s Bazar. On either side of the main road, rows of shops line the town. Branching off to the right is the Badrakhalī Road. As one travels west along this road, endless salt farms stretch out as far as the eye can see.
Just beyond Chakaria Sadar, in the Bahaddarkata area of West Boro Veola Union, we came across a group of laborers beside the road. Spread across a vast area were salt enclosures. The workers were stacking harvested salt in large mounds along the roadside. Among them was Jahurul Islam, 42, who said he remembers seeing parts of the forest as a child. “Those are just memories now,” he said.
According to a government document titled “Cox's Bazar Working Plan for the Period from 1950 to 1969–70”, the Chakaria Sundarbans was declared a reserved forest in 1903. It was one of the oldest mangrove forests in the Indian subcontinent. Over the decades, it was subjected to increasing human encroachment for agricultural expansion, firewood collection, and fishing.
In the 1950s, the forest covered approximately 21,102 acres. Eventually, 18,508 acres were designated as reserved forest, while the rest was classified as protected forest.
The Moheshkhali channel runs along the edge of the Magnamapara area in Badarkhali. Dense Sundarbans once stood nearby, but now is just a memory. Prothom Alo
Professor Mohammad Al-Amin of the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at the University of Chittagong said, “First the forest was cleared for shrimp enclosures, then shrimp farming collapsed. After that came salt farming. That’s the history of the Chakaria Sundarbans. With relentless salt production on former forest land, the soil has now lost nearly all its fertility. The clearing of the forest began in earnest in the mid-1970s.”
How the Forest Was Destroyed
Human settlement in the Chakaria Sundarbans began long ago. Portions of the forest were cleared to accommodate local communities. Yet, even in the early 1970s, Chakaria still had a thriving and healthy forest.
The settlers mainly depended on producing salt from seawater for their livelihoods. For processing the salt, they relied heavily on firewood from the forest. This practice contributed to forest degradation, but it was not catastrophic.
A research study titled “Demise of Chakaria Sundarbans: Who Is to Blame” by Laskar Muksedur Rahman and Nikhil Chakma details how the destruction unfolded. According to them, the first major blow came in 1977 when the Ministry of Agriculture issued a government order leasing 563 acres of reserved forest in the Rampur block of Chakaria Sundarbans, specifically in the Badarkhali Ghona area, for one year. The lease was granted to “Shrimp and Duckery Farm,” owned by local influential figure Gias Uddin Chowdhury. The stated purpose was shrimp cultivation, duck farming, and agro-fishery. This marked the government’s first lease of reserved forest land in Chakaria for shrimp farming—an action that opened the door to widespread destruction of the forest.
The large-scale devastation began when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank started investing in shrimp farming in the area.
According to the same study, ADB began funding shrimp farming projects in 1982. Under this initiative, over a hundred shrimp farms—each about 11 acres in size—were established, and a 16-kilometer-long embankment was constructed. These were developed under ADB’s so-called “Aquaculture Project.” The Ministry of Agriculture later issued a second directive transferring an additional 2,000 acres of reserved forest land to the Department of Fisheries.
The mass cutting of trees in Chakaria started in full force during the 1980s.
An extraordinary documentary titled “Chakaria Sundarbans: The Forest Without Trees” was produced by Philip Gain, director of the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), a leading environmental and research organization. He was the first to publicly expose the destruction of this forest on a large scale.
In his book “Stolen Forest”, Gain writes that multilateral development banks provided loans to the Government of Bangladesh to support export-oriented initiatives. In 1986, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched aquaculture projects in the region. Under these initiatives, $26 million was invested in shrimp farming. With World Bank funding, 500 shrimp ponds—each around 10 acres in size—were established in forested areas.
After the launch of these projects, the once-thriving forest gradually vanished. The destruction unfolded before the eyes of Chakaria resident Sadekul Islam, now 75. “The government backed this destruction,” he said. “I saw them cut down Keora, Bain, and Sundari trees in the Sundarbans to make shrimp enclosures.”
At Prothom Alo’s request, satellite imagery of the Chakaria Sundarbans was obtained from the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO). The images revealed a direct correlation between forest loss and the rise of shrimp enclosures. The forest remained largely intact until 1979, when it still covered more than 15,000 acres. By 1995, it had shrunk to just 866 acres—almost completely vanished.
Destruction of the Chakaria Sundarbans led to the loss of livelihoods for at least 400,000 people. When the forest was intact, it supported no fewer than 20 species of fish—most of which are now virtually nonexistent.
Once dense Chakaria Sundarbans now resembles a salt desert. This is the Lombakhali Para area of Badarkhali Union in Chakaria Jewel Shill
Those who benefited from the deforested land included local elites as well as influential individuals from Dhaka, both in government and private sectors.
Grameen Bank received 30 ten-acre plots from the Forest Department. Their fish farming project continues. In the Rampur Mouza of Chakaria, the Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation remains active near the Icharkhali outpost, operating in what was once dense mangrove land.
In a 1989 report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) itself acknowledged that 1,976 acres of forest had been cleared. The report stated that due to this clearing, the area experienced a clear decline in shrimp and fish breeding and nursery grounds—particularly noting that approximately 1,976 acres of mangrove forest in the Chakaria Sundarbans were destroyed within the project area.
Philip Gain, who has worked for over three decades on the environmental impact of international financial institutions in Bangladesh’s forest and ecological sectors, points out that it was local influential figures who first initiated the destruction of the Chakaria forest. “By the mid-1970s, large-scale shrimp farming—funded by the World Bank and ADB—wiped out the forest completely,” he said.
“Despite the destruction of such a vast natural resource,” Gain added, “these multinational institutions never stopped their ecologically destructive financing.”
To be continued..................
Partha Shankar Saha &
SM Hanif Dhaka and Chakaria
Updated: 25 Jul 2025, 18: 38
Once 30 sq km of thriving forest, now just one tree stands—felled by shrimp farming, human avarice and ADB-World Bank funding SM Hanif
We are telling the story of a forest that has been reduced to a single mangrove tree. Can a single tree make a forest? Certainly not. But once this was a rich and thriving mangrove forest, home to thousands of species of trees, shrubs and animals. It spanned more than 30 square kilometers. Adjacent to the sea, its lower lands would be inundated during high tide, teeming with various kinds of marine fish. The forest and local communities shared a deep and interdependent bond.
Today, about eight kilometers from Chakaria’s upazila headquarters in Cox’s Bazar, near the New Mosque area of Fasiakhali, two "Sundari" trees can be seen. But in truth, it is one tree—the roots of both trunks are the same. Just 20 feet away lies the Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar railway line. The area around it is sparsely populated.
One recent afternoon, we visited this lone tree. There were no birds chirping in its branches. Only silence, as if the tree stands alone in mourning for a forest long gone. It is a living witness to the destruction of an entire ecosystem.
It was there we met local resident Abdul Latif. For him, Chakaria was synonymous with the Sundarbans. He personally witnessed the gradual disappearance of the forest. Latif now lives in Shogir Shahkata of Dulahazara Union in Chakaria, though his ancestral home is in Badarkhali.
“We used to fish in the Sundarbans as children,” says Abdul Latif. “We would go there to collect golpata (nipa palm). There were Sundari, Gewa, Goran, Keora, Dhundul, and golpata trees. We also saw tigers, deer, monkeys, langurs, wild cats, crocodiles, snakes—so much wildlife. Now it’s all gone. Nothing remains except fish enclosures and salt fields. Only a single Sundari tree stands today. People now come just to see that.”
But it’s not just the disappearance of a forest. With it, local communities lost their source of fuel. Natural fisheries vanished. People whose livelihoods depended on the forest lost their jobs. Wetlands were destroyed. Soil salinity increased. Biodiversity suffered. And the natural buffer that protected the coast from cyclones and tidal surges was wiped out. The financial cost of this destruction is also massive.
Economist Hossain Zillur Rahman told Prothom Alo, “Chakaria shows us how, under the patronage of multinational agencies, so-called state-led development projects can destroy a rich natural treasure. It’s a mix of flawed development philosophy, misguided plans by lending agencies, and the greed of privileged classes in the state. We’re already facing the consequences of this destruction. And its impacts will linger for a long time.”
Location of the Chakaria Sundarbans
The Chakaria Sundarbans was once one of the oldest mangrove forests in the Indian subcontinent. Bangladesh is home to three distinct types of Sundarbans: the world’s largest, located in the Khulna region; the second-largest, the now-vanished Chakaria Sundarbans; and the third, an artificially regenerated mangrove zone in the Barishal and Bhola regions. The Chakaria Sundarbans was once surrounded by water on all sides.
In its prime, the dense Chakaria Sundarbans was bordered on the east by the Arakan Road, on the northeast by human settlements, agricultural land, and salt fields, and to the south lay the Maheshkhali Channel. The forest area on the western bank of the Matamuhuri River was known as Rampur, while the eastern portion was called Charan Dwip.
Chakaria Upazila town lies along the route from Chattogram to Cox’s Bazar. On either side of the main road, rows of shops line the town. Branching off to the right is the Badrakhalī Road. As one travels west along this road, endless salt farms stretch out as far as the eye can see.
Just beyond Chakaria Sadar, in the Bahaddarkata area of West Boro Veola Union, we came across a group of laborers beside the road. Spread across a vast area were salt enclosures. The workers were stacking harvested salt in large mounds along the roadside. Among them was Jahurul Islam, 42, who said he remembers seeing parts of the forest as a child. “Those are just memories now,” he said.
According to a government document titled “Cox's Bazar Working Plan for the Period from 1950 to 1969–70”, the Chakaria Sundarbans was declared a reserved forest in 1903. It was one of the oldest mangrove forests in the Indian subcontinent. Over the decades, it was subjected to increasing human encroachment for agricultural expansion, firewood collection, and fishing.
In the 1950s, the forest covered approximately 21,102 acres. Eventually, 18,508 acres were designated as reserved forest, while the rest was classified as protected forest.
The Moheshkhali channel runs along the edge of the Magnamapara area in Badarkhali. Dense Sundarbans once stood nearby, but now is just a memory. Prothom Alo
Professor Mohammad Al-Amin of the Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences at the University of Chittagong said, “First the forest was cleared for shrimp enclosures, then shrimp farming collapsed. After that came salt farming. That’s the history of the Chakaria Sundarbans. With relentless salt production on former forest land, the soil has now lost nearly all its fertility. The clearing of the forest began in earnest in the mid-1970s.”
How the Forest Was Destroyed
Human settlement in the Chakaria Sundarbans began long ago. Portions of the forest were cleared to accommodate local communities. Yet, even in the early 1970s, Chakaria still had a thriving and healthy forest.
The settlers mainly depended on producing salt from seawater for their livelihoods. For processing the salt, they relied heavily on firewood from the forest. This practice contributed to forest degradation, but it was not catastrophic.
A research study titled “Demise of Chakaria Sundarbans: Who Is to Blame” by Laskar Muksedur Rahman and Nikhil Chakma details how the destruction unfolded. According to them, the first major blow came in 1977 when the Ministry of Agriculture issued a government order leasing 563 acres of reserved forest in the Rampur block of Chakaria Sundarbans, specifically in the Badarkhali Ghona area, for one year. The lease was granted to “Shrimp and Duckery Farm,” owned by local influential figure Gias Uddin Chowdhury. The stated purpose was shrimp cultivation, duck farming, and agro-fishery. This marked the government’s first lease of reserved forest land in Chakaria for shrimp farming—an action that opened the door to widespread destruction of the forest.
The large-scale devastation began when the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank started investing in shrimp farming in the area.
According to the same study, ADB began funding shrimp farming projects in 1982. Under this initiative, over a hundred shrimp farms—each about 11 acres in size—were established, and a 16-kilometer-long embankment was constructed. These were developed under ADB’s so-called “Aquaculture Project.” The Ministry of Agriculture later issued a second directive transferring an additional 2,000 acres of reserved forest land to the Department of Fisheries.
The mass cutting of trees in Chakaria started in full force during the 1980s.
An extraordinary documentary titled “Chakaria Sundarbans: The Forest Without Trees” was produced by Philip Gain, director of the Society for Environment and Human Development (SEHD), a leading environmental and research organization. He was the first to publicly expose the destruction of this forest on a large scale.
In his book “Stolen Forest”, Gain writes that multilateral development banks provided loans to the Government of Bangladesh to support export-oriented initiatives. In 1986, the World Bank and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) launched aquaculture projects in the region. Under these initiatives, $26 million was invested in shrimp farming. With World Bank funding, 500 shrimp ponds—each around 10 acres in size—were established in forested areas.
After the launch of these projects, the once-thriving forest gradually vanished. The destruction unfolded before the eyes of Chakaria resident Sadekul Islam, now 75. “The government backed this destruction,” he said. “I saw them cut down Keora, Bain, and Sundari trees in the Sundarbans to make shrimp enclosures.”
At Prothom Alo’s request, satellite imagery of the Chakaria Sundarbans was obtained from the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO). The images revealed a direct correlation between forest loss and the rise of shrimp enclosures. The forest remained largely intact until 1979, when it still covered more than 15,000 acres. By 1995, it had shrunk to just 866 acres—almost completely vanished.
Destruction of the Chakaria Sundarbans led to the loss of livelihoods for at least 400,000 people. When the forest was intact, it supported no fewer than 20 species of fish—most of which are now virtually nonexistent.
Once dense Chakaria Sundarbans now resembles a salt desert. This is the Lombakhali Para area of Badarkhali Union in Chakaria Jewel Shill
Those who benefited from the deforested land included local elites as well as influential individuals from Dhaka, both in government and private sectors.
Grameen Bank received 30 ten-acre plots from the Forest Department. Their fish farming project continues. In the Rampur Mouza of Chakaria, the Grameen Fisheries and Livestock Foundation remains active near the Icharkhali outpost, operating in what was once dense mangrove land.
In a 1989 report, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) itself acknowledged that 1,976 acres of forest had been cleared. The report stated that due to this clearing, the area experienced a clear decline in shrimp and fish breeding and nursery grounds—particularly noting that approximately 1,976 acres of mangrove forest in the Chakaria Sundarbans were destroyed within the project area.
Philip Gain, who has worked for over three decades on the environmental impact of international financial institutions in Bangladesh’s forest and ecological sectors, points out that it was local influential figures who first initiated the destruction of the Chakaria forest. “By the mid-1970s, large-scale shrimp farming—funded by the World Bank and ADB—wiped out the forest completely,” he said.
“Despite the destruction of such a vast natural resource,” Gain added, “these multinational institutions never stopped their ecologically destructive financing.”
To be continued..................
