RAJSHAHI, May 23, 2022 (BSS) - Collective efforts of all the government and
non-government organizations concerned can be the best ways of ensuring
survival of all the living beings through protecting biodiversity.
 
Environment has been facing a serious threat due to various natural and man-
made catastrophes posing an identical threat to the planet Earth at present
so there is no way but to protect the biodiversity.
 
Development activists, social watchdogs and members of various volunteer
organizations came up with the observations while addressing a meeting at
Borokuthi river bank Sunday afternoon.
 
The Department of Forest and Bangladesh Biodiversity Conservation Federation
(BBCF) jointly organized the meeting to mark the World Biodiversity Day 2022.
Theme of the day this year was "Building a shared future for all life".
 
Divisional Forest Officer Rafiquzzaman Shah, President of Bangladesh
Livestock Society Prof Jalal Uddin Sarder and its general secretary Dr
Hemayetul Islam, local unit general secretary of Bangladesh Poultry
Association Enamul Haque and BBCF leader Mijanur Rahman addressed the
meeting.

The discussants unanimously stressed the need for protecting rivers and other
surface water resources and wetlands from further degradation to conserve
biodiversity and ecosystem along with mitigating water crises in the drought-
prone Barind area.
 
Stressing the need for protecting the Ganges to conserve biodiversity and
ecosystem along with mitigating water crises in the area Prof Jalal Sarder
emphasized protecting other tributaries to keep balance of environment and
save aquatic species.
 
He mentioned that the mighty river has now turned into a dried bed of sand
dunes and silts due to depletion of flow of water. Every year, the river is
losing its navigability with the deposition of millions of tonnes of silt on
the riverbed.
 
Prof Sarder, a teacher in the department of veterinary and animal sciences of
Rajshahi University, said the water in the river is now visible for three to
four months only and in the rest eight to nine months of the year water level
drops to its lowest ebb resulting in miles long sandy char land across the
river.

The main flow of the river is from the right side of the river but the flow
has now turned into stagnant water bodies in the river bed.