Logs used illegally:Daily Star

A brick kiln close to a coastal forest in Kattali area of Chittagong. While dust and smoke from the kiln are polluting the environment, rampant use of logs as fuel for baking bricks is destroying the coastal greenery. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das Two illegal brick kilns in the port city and Sitakunda upazila are burning trees of the nearby reserve forest, violating the law. Locals said the brick kilns,
KML-1 and KML-2, are operating due to the negligence of the Department of Environment, district administration and forest department. KML-1 is situated at Kattali in the city while KML-2 at Latifpur of Sitakunda. They have neither licence nor environment clearance certificate. Mohammad Musa, manager of the kilns, denied that logs were being burnt there. “The kilns run on coal,” he said.  But this correspondent saw piles of logs at the kilns. Musa said those were timber being used by the workers for cooking food. Workers carrying wood collected from the forest . Photo: Anurup Kanti Das Another brick kiln, ARC, is operating in the same area. Contacted, Mahmudul Alam, its owner, admitted that the kiln was illegal. “We are not getting the clearance certificate from the DoE. And without it, it is impossible to obtain the licence,” he said. Advertisement Every year in winter, the illegal kilns start to operate, but a little has been done to shut those down, say locals. Toxic emission from the kilns is posing a great threat to the nearby environment and its habitants, said Khaled Misbahuzzaman, professor of Chittagong University's Forestry and Environmental Science Department. A notice reads any activity harmful to the forest is a punishable offence. The photos were taken a few days back. Photo: Anurup Kanti Das Following a report of The Daily Star last year, the DoE fined KML-2 Tk 5.5 lakh. The KML-1 was also fined in 2010. The kiln authorities went to the High Court after the DoE served them a notice as well. Later, the HC put a stay order that was extended five times to end in May last year. A case filed against ARC in the same year is still pending with the environment court. Deputy Commissioner Mesbah Uddin said, “We have heard about the writ. Considering the matter, we will carry a drive to evict the kilns soon.”  Chittagong Divisional Coastal Forest Officer RSM Munirul Islam said they would take action if the kilns were found to have burnt trees.