A vast tract of cultivable land around Hakaluki Haor area is losing its fertility day by day as farmers are lured into selling the topsoil to brick kilns in four upazilas of the district.
Brick kiln owners collect earth from the topsoil of the land for making quality bricks, farmers said.
In most cases, farmers are selling topsoil of their cropland to the kiln owners in exchange for money.
Although the process seriously damages the soil fertility in the haor area, the authorities concerned are yet to take any step against the influential kiln owners to save the croplands from losing fertility.
Moyna Mia, a labourer at a brick kiln at Bhuhai village in Kulaura upazila, said topsoil is used as raw materials for manufacturing first class bricks and the kiln owners collect those from nearly farmlands.
Moyna's friends Monjur and Kuddus Mia of the village said kiln owners are collecting topsoil of two to four feet depth from the farmland which causes harm to soil fertility.
Farhadul Islam, a farmer at Dildarpur village in the upazila, said “I got 10 maunds of paddy from my half bigha of land two years ago, but the yield has fallen by half after I sold its topsoil to a brick kiln.”
Md Nurul Mohmain Milton, general secretary of the Environmental Journalists' Forum, said the government has declared Hakaluki Haor, covering 40 thousand hectares of land under five upazilas in Moulvibazar and Sylhet, as an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA) to save it from rampant tree felling, fishing by drying up shallow parts and bird hunting.
Owner of Shapla Brick field Mustafizur Rahman said they purchase the topsoil by fulfilling the farmers' interest and they never faced any objection from the agriculture department.
Abdul Karim Kim, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon's (Bapa) Sylhet chapter, urged the authorities concerned to take immediate measures in this regard and stop the harmful practice.
