Green to Barren and Being
| | Work in Progress | |
‘Green to Barren and Being’ is an ongoing body of work which contains several different chapters; Stories of a place and its survivors, upcoming future or scares, which are divided into five parts, where land is given and green is being sacrificed.
As a nation we perfectly know and understand why people become refugees. We know, as we faced the Liberation War of 1971. Nowadays Kutupalong, (Ukhiya, Cox’s Bazar district, Bangladesh) is the world’s largest refugee camp. Six hundred and sixty thousand refugees are already living in the area and still counting.
Kutupalong is the Hill Side Forest area, almost five thousand acre of this forest area is allocated for making space for the Rohingya refugee camp. Meanwhile a massive scale of deforestation is done over there, although there wasn’t any alternative. All the trees are cut down; all the grass is burnt, for making near about one hundred seventy-five thousand new shelters. Also there wasn’t any supply of firewood for cooking, but food should be prepared daily for more than six hundred and sixty thousand refugees. They collect firewood from the near forests and start digging for the roots too. It causes the total allocated Hill Side forest area ending up into sandy soil area. Dust captures over air and lack of green causes extra warmth. This warming has hugely impact not just on the environment, but also to a great extent on the human life.
Deforestation from Hills and Sandy soils are the major reasons for landslide. Also, the limitation of time, six month, is way too short of period for building a proper camp for six hundred and sixty thousand people. Selecting places anywhere and making shelters everywhere happened in the camp. The most recent research shows that almost one hundred and fifty thousand people are now living in the high risk landslide zone area, where slopes are really high. On the upcoming monsoon season these people will loom disaster. The storms will come and it is going to be a catastrophe.
Southeastern Bangladesh is already one of the wettest parts of a moist country, with twelve feet of rain on an average every year. A warming atmosphere can hold more moisture and unleash more intense downpours and make wet places even wetter. That may already happen over Kutupalong. These people are now not just victims; they are become survivors and warriors. They are fighting against Manmade and natural disaster, dealing with climate changes and are preparing to face further tragedies.
This project is dealing an aftermath of deforestation, deforestation of a place of huge five thousand acres of this forest area, with where refugees need seven hundred tons of firewood to cooking every single day; so now they are collecting firewood from near forests. Forests are vanishing every day. This project is also dealing with an environment where sandy soil is everywhere and the air is becoming heavier day by day and produces extra warmth. This project is also dealing with cutting and leveling mountains, where one hundred and fifty thousand people are presently living in high risk landslide zone area, already monsoon has been there, downpours and storms will be the cause of the landslide. Deforestation, polluted environment or air, landslide, all these elements are major elements causes climate changes.
© Shihab Shahariare Khan || developed by digibinary ||