Rampal plant will lessen pressure on Sundarbans, claims parliamentary panel

A parliamentary committee has claimed that the Rampal power plant currently under construction will help reduce human pressure on the Sundarbans, a UNESCO world heritage site.

The committee made the observation on Wednesday after its team visited the project area on Apr 16-18.

Committee President Md Tajul Islam said at a press conference in capital Dhaka, “People enter the Sundarbans to collect honey and wood and for hunting, but risking their lives.

“The entry of people into the Sundarbans will decline because the plant will create new livelihood opportunities.”

He claimed the 1,320-MW ‘Friendship Super Thermal’ plant would create direct and indirect employment for 50,000 people.

The panel made the claim amid environmentalists’ opposition to the plant being built by Bangladesh and India at a place 14 km off the border of one of the world’s largest mangrove forests and 69 km away from its world heritage site.

Environmentalists say the plant would adversely affect the forest ecology.

But the government says care is being taken to leave the forest unaffected.

Tajul said the absence of human habitation in the project area obviates the need for land acquisition. “It’s the appropriate site (for the project).”

In an effort to dispel the concern of environmentalists, he said the plant would use coal having 5-9 percent sulphur content, resulting in less sulphur dioxide than the air in Dhaka.

Tajul said, “Those who are opposing the plant are doing so out of a concern for the country. But they are not well informed (about the impact of the project on the Sundarbans).”

He said a UNESCO team that visited the Sundarbans in March this year had expressed no fear for the forest.