Good Morning Bangladesh!!!
How are you people!
Let's talk!
Let's talk about the breathtaking St. Martin's Island.
About couple of hundred thousands of tourists visiting St. Martin each year and it is increasing each year and most of them visit during September to April.
Coral is declining day by day and the same in case tree-covered area of the island.
To fulfil customer satisfaction more and more hotels/cottage(more than 100) being built there besides, population (around 10k) of the island is increasing which is really alarming for the biodiversity of the island.
I have visited twice in 2004 and in 2019 and seen many differences between five years gap.
If you visited before you would find the difference and might wanted to stop people going to the island, at least you wanted to limit the visitor and arrange settlement at the mainland for permanent people living there.
While there were 141 kinds of Coral found in St. Martin’s Island it is less than 041 till date as per new reports. Study says there will be no Coral after 2045 if things going like this.
Experts believe, not only visitor but also the local fishing community and permanent residents and of course climate changes liable for this. Here, climate changes also man created! So, actually have to take the total liability to our shoulders.
The unique island of St. Martin, the only place in Bangladesh where coral colonies are found, is a natural treasure of Bangladesh that attracts thousands of tourists. The Island also has an important ecological value as one of the few remaining nesting places in the region for several species of globally threatened marine turtles, as well as being a flyway and wintering site for migratory birds of the East Asian and Australasian region.
Reference
There are many small initiatives by general people to keep the island clean but I've not seen any permanent effort of the authorities. People visiting the beautiful island and literally killing this along the fishermen fishing within 1000 square metres of the island.
Uncontrolled tourism and poor waste management of hotels/motels,dumping materials by tourists at sea water,extraction of rocks and coral,fishing by fishing nets at coastal area - could be identified as main man made reasons. Basically, coral borne around 500 to 1000 meters of the shore and fishermen destroying them with fishing net.
This is high time to rethink otherwise we would likely lose this beautiful unique treasure.