Death hangs low on Ctg hill slope dwellers

Many people have continued to live on the slopes of Chittagong hills, risking their lives in landslide as the rainy season, when most of such fatal accidents occur, is drawing near.
Citizens and experts have blamed the authorities concerned for not taking effective steps as yet to relocate these people living at places vulnerable to landslides.
On June 13, 2017, a total of 133 people were killed in landslide in the hilly districts. In Rangamati alone the death toll was 100 while 26 in Chittagong and 7 Bandarban.
In the same month, Chittagong District Administration evicted from the slopes of Motijhorna hill residents of 60 unauthorised makeshift houses.
During visits, people have been found living at places of Motijharna Hill, Tankir Pahar Hill, Batali Hill, Akbar Shah Hill and Jalalabad Hill of the port city, not caring much for threat of eviction and fatal accidents.
Power cables and water supply pipes have been laid up haphazardly in the areas by some people but none of the tenants of the makeshift houses dared to mention who are realising rents and bills and only hinted that they were ruling party people.
Many people are living at the foot of Akbar Shah Hill, where seven people were killed in landslide in
2012. Over 150 shanties are dotting the hill slope where trees have been cut down to clear spaces over the years.
Surma, resident of Yasin Miar Colony near the hill, says she was living there because of cheap rend — Tk 1,000 a month for a room.
Land grabbers have cut different parts of Bangladesh Bank Hill at Bayezid and built over 500 shanties where around 2,500 people live.
Monu Akther, a housemaid claiming to have been residing in the area for 20 years, said they had no other place to go and so they come back.
Locals have alleged that most of those who claim ownership of hills do not have valid documents. Yet they can rent out such vulnerable makeshift structures because of their political influence over government officials.
Adjacent to Jalalabad Tower Hill, some hillocks have been levelled by miscreants and people are living there in shanties.
Recently, the district administration has prepared a report on the hills and landslide in Chittagong which says that there are 500 hills in Chittagong district. Among them, 28 vulnerable hills are situated in Chittagong metropolitan and nearby areas.
The foot of CRB Hill, hill adjacent to Tigerpass-Lalkhan Bazar road, south-west side of Tigerpass Hill, Mojaffar Nagar Hill, Prabartak Hill, Gol Hill, Ispahani Hill, Forest Research Institute Hill, Joy Hill, Chateshwari Hill, Motijhorna Hill, Batali Hill, hill adjacent to Railways Employees School, hill adjacent to Foy’s Lake Residential area, hill adjacent to Akbar Shah Residential area, Jalalabad Hill, hill adjacent to Goribullah Shah Majar , DC Hill, City Corporation Hill adjacent to DoE Chittagong office, hill of AK Khan and Co, hill of Chittagong University, Koiballadham Bisshwa Colony Hill, Miar Hill, hill near Jamiyatul Ulum Alia Madrassah, hill near Nasirabad Industrial Area, hill of Lake City Residential area, hill adjacent to Blossom Garden, hill of Harun Khan and hill of Mir Mohammad Hasan have been spotted as vulnerable.
The report says that nearly 684 families live in these risky hills. By having illegal gas, electricity and water connection, they are engaged in drug peddling causing severe social crisis.
The report also finds that lack of hill management policy and monitoring by agencies concerned to check illegal hill cutting has aggravated the problem. 
By flouting laws, local influential people control these hills and rent out houses to the low income people.
The report says that landslide of 2017 was caused by heavy rain, hill cutting and deforestation. 
It recommends relocation and rehabilitation of people living on hill slopes by hill owners, exemplary punishment of people involved in hill cutting, taking forestation programme, make Motijhorna and Batali hill a tourist spot by evicting dwellers, launching awareness campaign, empowering Department of Environment to file case against hill cutting.
Earlier in 2007, landslides triggered by heavy rains in the city claimed at least 127 lives. The disasters took place at Lalkhan Bazar, Motijharna, Tankir Pahar, Batali Hill, Akbar Shah and Pahartali.
Hills in these areas are of crumbly soil and become vulnerable after heavy rainfall if the surface is not covered with plants.
Insecure lands use and rampant hill cutting are two major factors that causes landslide in the hilly areas, says Md Rashidul Hasan, assistant professor of urban and regional planning at Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology.
When it rains, water dissolves the minerals of the hill soil that loosens its compaction and the soil also becomes heavy by absorbing rainwater, he explains. 
The steep hill slopes, he says, cannot bear the mass weight of the wet soil or mud, which results in landslides.
After the 2007 tragedy, a Divisional Hill Management Committee was formed to prevent further loss of lives.
Divisional commissioner of Chittagong Md Abdul Mannan, who is the convener of the committee, told New Age that this year precautionary measures would be taken to check deaths in landslides. 
‘We have a plan to evict people before monsoon so that not a single person dies,’ he said.
Officials of DC office told New Age that despite several notices served by the district administration, people were still living in the hills with the help of local influential people.
DoE director of Chittagong Mokbul Hossain said the hills were owned by different agencies so the district administration was working on that. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net