Around 6000 Crabs are dying every day due to Motorbike crash at Kuakata Sea Beach, Bangladesh
By Zeba Tarunnum
Every day around 6000 crabs are dying due to bike crashes during the tourist season on Kuakata sea beach. Besides this, the beach is also losing its ecological potential due to plastic pollution caused by uncontrolled tourism and the extinction of livestock.
An observation report of Marine Journalists’ Network, an organization of marine environmental journalists shows such information. The organization released these reports at a virtual press conference.
Kefayet Shakil, a member of the executive committee of the organization, read out the report under the chairmanship of Mahmud Sohail, the President of the organization, in performance of Muhammad Anwarul Haque, the founding president of the organization.
The reports also state, every year, around 50,000 to 60,000 tourists visit Kuakata during the tourist season. However, there are no effective measures for the management of these tourists. As a result, every day 90% of the plastic thrown by the tourists on this beach is flowing into the sea.
Around 200 motorbikes travel every day on the Kuakata Sea beach during the tourist season which daily income is about Tk. 1,500 to Tk. 2,000. These motorbikes travel on the crab island at least twice or thrice a day.
The observation shows, at least 10 crabs die at a time by a motorcycle hit. As calculated, around 6 thousand crabs die by motorcycle daily. The report also stated the information of deforestation, eviction, loss of settlements due to breaking down, and threats to fisheries in Kuakata.
The organization has made some recommendations to stop uncontrolled and eco-friendly tourism in the report. The recommendations are- Ban on entry with plastic-wrapped products in the beach area to prevent plastic pollution, to keep the beach clean by the eviction of ‘tong shops’ built near the beach, cleaning of garbage, recruit a special force to control the playing football on the beach and to make tourists aware, totally ban the travel of motorcycle in the beach area, taking of awareness measures to protect biodiversity, stop playing loud music in the beach area, and taking effective measures to protect red crabs along with tourist control And quickly declaring Kuakata as an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA).
Raquibul Amin, Country Representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources – IUCN, Prof.
Kamruzzaman Majumdar, Chairman of Environmental Sciences Department at Stamford University Bangladesh, Dr. Zahangir Alom, Country Representative for Wildlife Conservation Society, Atiqur Rahman, Director of Save Our Sea, Biswajit Nath, Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Chittagong, Dr. Nasir Uddin, a wildlife researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mokhlesur Rahman, Chairman of Bangladesh Tourism Foundation, Bappi Sardar, chairman of the Green Movement, MGR Nasir Uddin Majumder, Managing Director of Century Resort and Nasir Uddin Biplob Promuk, President of kuakata press club spoke in the discussion meeting on the occasion of publishing the report.
