BACK	BANGLADESH-ENVIRONMENT: Gas Fields Threaten Tiger Habitat

On-shore drilling operations have already begun in eight blocks that were leased earlier. The area earmarked for exploration includes most of the wildlife protected areas.

The government expects to attract at least three billion dollars of foreign investment in the oil and gas sector over the next three years. Its international bid for exploration had 21 oil companies from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Denmark, Ireland, Holland, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia submitting proposals.

The bids were called in July this year and the production- sharing contract is to be signed with the successful bidders by December. Exploration work will begin from January next year across 23 blocks throughout Bangladesh.

Experts caution that natural gas finds will destroy the wildlife and natural environment for miles around each well.

Says Prof. Kazi Zakir Hossain of the Department of Zoology, Dhaka University, if an accident occurred at any place during drilling operation it would spell disaster for man, animal and environment over a much wider area. In this connection he referred to the explosion at Magurchara gas field in Sylhet district (about 225 km north east of Dhaka city) in June this year and its disastrous impact on the ecology.

The explosion at Magurchara gas field has scorched tea plantation in 10 tea gardens, damaged a large number of homes of workers, crops and vegetation of the surrounding areas. Besides depriving hundreds of families of their means of livelihood.

The gas fire also denuded the surrounding 700-acre reserved forest, rich in flora and fauna. The land will be no good for trees, tea, crops and vegetables for 50 years, soil scientists said.

Local people still remember the devastation caused by the gas explosion at Haripur, in Sylhet district, in 1950. But for the government and companies involved such accidents during drilling operation are not out of the ordinary.

Environmentalists said Bangladesh was facing a very serious loss of green cover and extinction of wildlife species. With the sharp increase in the population, forest were cleared for cultivation and settlements. About 16 percent of Bangladesh was under forest cover in 1947. But like elsewhere in the region, the forest cover here too has shrunk to nine percent.

A zoologist, who wished to remain anonymous, accused the government of keeping the people in the dark about the possible hazards of gas and oil exploration. ''We know nothing as to whether proper environment investigation has been made and mitigations suggested,'' he said.

''We certainly want development for the good of the people and the country, but it should be sustainable and not a threat to the survival of plant and wildlife species,'' said Prof. Hossain.

He has urged the government to reconsider its programme and stop immediately drilling operation in the blocks containing the wildlife protected areas and endangered or threatened wildlife species. At least 18 species of wildlife have become extinct in this century, and about 60/70 species are either endangered or threatened, according to Prof Hossain.

Under the Bangladesh Wildlife Preservation Act, about 14 protected areas have been established since 1971. Although the administration is not very effective, there is some protection. For instance, the tiger population is believed to have increased to about 400 at present from less than 200 in the 1960's.

The gas and oil drilling operation across Bangladesh, however, will set back these improvements, zoologists warned. Wildlife experts believe that scientific and systematic conservation and propagation of various wildlife would usher in essential ecological balance and create opportunities for earning huge foreign exchange.

Underlining the need for updating the Wildlife Act of 1973, some zoologists said the act in its present form was inadequate to deter the poachers. The act needs to make punishment more stringent. At present there is only nominal imprisonment and fine.

Taking advantage of the loopholes in the act the poachers have been hunting down the tiger, deer, lizards, snakes and other animals whose skins are very costly and in high demand abroad. The opening of protected wildlife areas for natural gas exploration will make policing even more difficult, say environmentalists.

The government appears to be focussing mainly on the money that will flow in. A senior official of the Energy Ministry said Bangladesh desperately needed gas and oil for its development. The present 13 trillion cubic feet of gas reserve would be exhausted by the year 2015.

Generation of electricity and the process of industrialisation, so vital for the country's development, would suffer a great setback if new gas fields were not discovered, he said. Bangladesh has a potential gas reserve of at least 50 trillion cubic feet.

''Our country can earn a minimum 500 million us dollars annually by exporting surplus gas '', Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said.

The Energy Ministry official preferred to remain silent when asked about the measures taken to protect the eco-system and preserve wildlife in the blocks leased out to oil companies for exploration of oil and gas. (END/IPS/ti/an/97)