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Tigers in the Sundarbans survive hardship

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News Desk : dhakamirror.com Tigers in the Sundarbans are in imminent danger of being hungry due to the rising spotted deer poaching. The big cats, well-known as the Royal Bengal Tiger in the southern mangrove forest of the country hunt spotted deer, monkey, and wild boar. According to a review study by the Implementation, Monitoring … Read more

Celebrating 50 years of global environmental movement

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Opinion
Saleemul Huq
The global environmental movement started in 1972, with the first global environment conference held in Stockholm, Sweden, hosted by then Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Among the heads of governments who also attended was the then Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who famously declared that environment and poverty were two major global issues that needed to be tackled together.
Since that watershed event, the United Nations set up the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), and different environmental treaties

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Non-stop river pollution threatens water security

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World Environment Day
Non-stop river pollution threatens water security
Laws, rules, HC directives go in vain
Rashad Ahamad
No pragmatic step is yet to be taken to protect the four rivers surrounding Dhaka even after declaring them ecologically critical 13 years ago.
In September 2009, the Department of Environment declared the four rivers Ecologically Critical Areas under Section 5 of the Bangladesh Environment Conservation Act. There are total 13 ECAs in Bangladesh.
The government formulated the Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA) Management Rules 2016 for implementing the act, including

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Saving earth from disasters

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Opinion
By Md Zillur Rahaman
TODAY is World Earth Day. The day is celebrated worldwide each year to show support for the protection of the environment. It was first observed in 1970 and is now held globally by the Earth Day Network.
The UN-sponsored conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 3 to June 14, 1992, is known as the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development or the Earth Summit. After the long-running Cold War, the main objective of the conference was for member states to work together for sustainable

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Women for women

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Opinion
Faria Rashid
PATRIARCHAL societies like to deceive women into thinking that women cannot get along, work together and stand in support of one another. Given the patriarchal history of society, it has mostly worked to keep women in their places and apart from each other. This is why we hear so much about women against women,
but not that much about women supporting women. Today, on International Women’s Day, I will highlight some of the ways women can, and do, support other women

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No country for elephants

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Mostafa Yousuf
As if it wasn’t hard enough for elephants to survive in this country, in a tragic development, it was discovered that they are not just dying by electrocution. Shooting down the animals straight up has become seemingly rampant to protect encroached forest lands.
In Cox’s Bazar, 18 elephants were shot down in the span of three years, from 2019 to 2021. The Daily Star found this grim picture after piecing together the three years’ data. During this time, nine elephants were

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Air pollution takes 3 years off life in Bangladesh

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Impact on life expectancy in Bangladesh worse than in India, Pakistan, Bhutan
Mohammad Al-Masum Molla
Air pollution cuts the average life expectancy of a person in Bangladesh by almost three years, said a global report.
It is higher than in India, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Afghanistan. Nepal, with air pollution-linked life expectancy loss of 3.05 years, is the worst affected in this region, according to the report released yesterday by US-based organisations Health Effects Institute and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The report, titled “State of Global Air-2020: How Does Air Pollution Affect Life Expectancy

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Which are the 10 largest airports in the world?

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The scenario of the global air transportation sector has drastically changed over the last few decades that has been subject to many variables over the past decade. Air travel is not only the most sought after and popular means of travel for long-distance but has made a major contribution to the world economy. It may seem unusual to you that some airports in the world are so big that they have their own postcodes as well. In today’s world, airports are more than just a place to get on or off a plane because there are many amenities available in airports like hotels, restaurants, spas, and malls. Few of these airports ferry tens of millions of passengers every

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Women-only travel platform Wander Woman wins grant worth $22K

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Wander Woman, a social venture dedicated to female travel enthusiasts from Bangladesh, has won a grant worth $22.5K at the UNLEASH Plus 2021 Program for “developing a revolutionary platform for female travellers in South Asia,” according to a press release.
UNLEASH Plus 2021 is the third iteration of a 6-months incubation program seeking to build the capacities of social entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs and activists by supporting them with the implementation of solutions for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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Snakes help monitor Fukushima Fallout

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Researchers have equipped snakes with tracking devices and dosimeters to measure the radiation levels in the vicinity of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Japan, in which there were three core meltdowns in March 2011 – one of the largest anthropogenic releases of radioactive contamination in history.
Radiation leaks forced tens of thousands of people to flee the area. Many have returned in the 10 years since but

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Celebrating World Samosa Day

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September 5 is celebrated as World Samosa Day and the day is solely dedicated to the crunchy oily snack. Be it rains or winter or summer, samosas are our savour.
For those unaccustomed to the humble street food item, it’s a triangular-shaped pastry that comes with a range of fillings. Different parts of the world have their iteration of the snack – from samboosa to sambusek – while samosa is the version enjoyed in

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Rain at the summit of Greenland for the first time on record

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Something extraordinary happened recently. On August 14, 2021, it rained at the highest point on the Greenland Ice Sheet for several hours — the first rainfall event in recorded history, and air temperatures remained above freezing for about nine hours.
The record-breaking rain is the latest in a string of warning signs about how climate change is affecting Greenland’s ice sheet.
Scientists confirmed these sightings on August 18th that rain were observed Saturday at Summit Station, a research facility that

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Emissions of CO2 driving rapid oceans ‘acid trip’

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Emissions of CO2The world’s oceans are becoming acidic at an “unprecedented rate” and may be souring more rapidly than at any time in the past 300 million years.
In their strongest statement yet on this issue, scientists say acidification could increase by 170% by 2100.
They say that some 30% of ocean species are unlikely to survive in these conditions.
The researchers conclude that human emissions of CO2 are clearly to blame.
The study will be presented

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Warming trees limit warming – a little

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Warming trees limit warming-a littleWarmer temperature prompts trees to release aerosols which in turn stimulate cloud formation. And that can help to cool the temperature, at least modestly.
Trees may provide the Earth with a little shade from global warming – indirectly. European and Canadian researchers report that they have found what engineers like to call a negative feedback loop above the forests of Europe and North America.
It works like this. Trees – those natural chemical factories that routinely deliver complex aromatic compounds such as

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BRAC University: The World Champions

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On January 3, members of 400 participating teams along with distinguished guests gathered at the Main Hall of Technische University, Berlin. Thousands if not millions watched the live feed online, from all around the world, eagerly and anxiously waiting for an announcement, the results of the World Universities Debating Championship 2013(WUDC 2013). The tournament is dubbed as the World Cup of debating and it is also considered as the largest

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Evaluating services of forest

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Biodiversity contributes considerably to economy and environment
Dr. M. A. BASHAR
In developing countries, the necessity of publicising services of forests is severely lacking. This sector must be given attention with special emphasis. The country like Bangladesh has to be very serious in all respects to understand and exercise the services offered by the forests. We must remember that the services are very important

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What the outcome yields for Bangladesh?

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Doha Climate Conference
What the outcome yields for Bangladesh?
Md. Mahfujur Rahman
Thirty-seven industrialized countries had been accused of releasing Greenhouse gases in Kyoto Protocol under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Signatory members to the UNFCCC have been meeting annually in Conference of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change since 1994. This year Climate leaders from all over the world gathered at Doha from 26 November to 8 December 2012 to find ‘what to dos’ for reversing the grim effect of global

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Down with the hills!

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Probir Kumar Sarker
Though Bangladesh is prominently a plain land, its Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Bandarban and Sylhet have hilly areas with forests and rich biodiversity. These areas are full of natural resources fulfilling needs of the people and other living species.
But at present, the destruction of hills in every area has become so alarming that many concerned people have been upbeat against the greedy grabbers who are out to convert these hilly areas into plain lands to set up industries and

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Cheetah the best sprinter on earth

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The fastest cheetah on Earth has done it again, breaking her previous world record for the 100-meter dash and setting a new best time of 5.95 seconds.
This feat surpasses the fastest of all human 100-meter sprinters by almost four seconds.
Usain Bolt, a Jamaican sprinter now competing at the 2012 London Olympics, holds the human world record at 9.58 seconds in the

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A prerequisite for sustainable development

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Natural Resource Governance
A prerequisite for sustainable development
Rukshana Sultana
The constitution of Bangladesh — article 143– illustrates that all natural resources on land and underground minerals and other things of value underlying the ocean within the territorial waters, or the ocean over the continental shelf of Bangladesh, are the properties of Bangladesh. In general, natural resources include oil and gas, minerals and metals, forests, fish, land and water. In Bangladesh, some 83% of the total population explicitly depends on natural resources. Therefore, to ensure sustainable use of these resources

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