Mintu Deshwara

For the first time ever, a book fair was held for the Manipuri community in Moulvibazar, in a festive manner.

Riddled with floating trash and indiscriminate encroachment, the Old Khowai River in Habiganj town is under threat of being occupied again, just two years after eviction drives were launched in 2019.

When a column of Pakistan army vehicles entered Dewrachhara Tea Garden in Moulvibazar in the afternoon of May 3, 1971, most of the workers there were alarmed but had little strength left to do anything about it.

Although the deadline for the renovation works on a two-kilometre stretch of the central road in Habiganj town has exceeded for five months, the works have yet to be completed, much to the sufferings of the people.

Many tomato farmers in Sylhet have secured bumper yields this year by using the grafting method to grow their crops amid favourable weather conditions.

Six large unauthorized commercial poultry farms are posing hazards to public health and agriculture in Madhabpur upazila of Habiganj violating a High Court order.

Several brick kilns, set up on farmland or close to educational institution, destroying fertility of vast agricultural land in the district.

Bangladesh’s agarwood-based perfume industry is struggling to bounce back from the Covid-19 fallouts as traders from the Middle East are yet to resume making purchases in full swing, leaving perfumers and raw material suppliers in the lurch.

On a November afternoon several weeks back, a middle-aged man, appearing to be a fish vendor, was spotted in Kaminiganj Bazar area of Moulvibazar’s Juri upazila.

Due to the availability of high-quality varieties, Malta cultivation is increasing in the Sylhet division. However, the farmers of Sylhet are losing interest in Mandarin orange (Citrus reticulata) cultivation and business.

Even though they had no disabilities at birth, two sisters, namely Supriya Sinha, 22, and Priyanti Sinha, 19, lost motor function in their hands when they were in school. Presently, they are living with their family in a rented house in Magura area of Moulvibazar’s Kulaura municipal town.

Winter is a difficult time for animals that reside in Moulvibazar’s Lawachara rain forest. As its streams run dry, quite rapidly, at the onset of the cold season, its diverse range of inhabitants don’t have an option but to look for water elsewhere.

About four thousand people -- inhabitants of Patna and Bagerkona villages in Moulvibazar’s Barlekha upazila -- have been cut off from the closest market and upazila headquarters for the past 18 months, as their lone road lies unusable following excavation of the Dhamai river.

Growers of different summer varieties of tomato, especially the one named Raja, are making more or less 200 percent profit this season in Sylhet region.

Both the international and domestic demand for Manipuri cloth, a style of handwoven fabric native to Sylhet that come in block, stripe and flat colour print, has recovered in line with the receding coronavirus pandemic.

The local tea industry was in hot water not long ago as various restrictions put in place all over the world amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic had led to a decrease in demand.

The Moulvibazar district administration yesterday launched a bus service to facilitate travel for both domestic and foreign tourists so as to encourage more people to visit the region.

Heavy rains followed by strong current in a creek between two hillocks -- in Satchhari National Park under Chunarughat upazila of Habiganj -- severely damaged a walk bridge and cut off at least 20 families of Tripura community from markets and localities since last week.

Farmers who cultivate cassava on fallow land in Sylhet division are in for a huge success this year with expectations of a bumper yield and good market prices.

Leading British architect-planner Graeme Shankland once said, “A country without a past has the emptiness of a barren continent, and a city without old buildings is like a man without a memory.”