In 2018, the Department of Environment published a list of 190 factories that are built within the 10-kilometre buffer zone of the Sundarbans. A development-oriented government expects that industrialization will create more employment opportunities and reduce the local population’s dependence on the forest resources. This approach towards achieving sustainability of any natural resource site, eg, the Sundarbans, is similar to Garrett Hardin’s claims about the tragedy of the commons. As very few are directly benefited, many people are forced to forgo customary practices of forest resource use, risking the wellbeing of the Sundarbans. It is not an exaggeration to claim that capitalistic appropriation of the Sundarbans engenders massive ecological and social loss.

Source: Dhaka Tribune December 06, 2020 18:11 UTC