Mintu Deshwara

Bashar Mia and his father used to be busy around this time every year harvesting Boro on their five acres of land near Nishchintapur

At Tania Khan's residence in Moulvibazar town a number of patients are recuperating. But she is not a doctor and her patients aren't of the human species. A squirrel is feeding on liquid saline while a myna bird is partaking of fruit. Tania believes motherly affection is the key to bringing injured animals back to health.

Many labourers working at the tea gardens in the country are not aware of the significance or history behind May Day. "Around one lakh out of seven lakh workers at 163 tea gardens aren't aware of the day, they knew the day is a public holiday,"

Children in flood-hit areas of Sunamganj have remained absent from school for nearly a month, mostly because there are waters all

Farmers and public representatives have reiterated their demand for declaring Sunamganj haor belt a disaster zone prior to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to the area today.

Hot on the heels of natural disaster in the flash-flood affected areas of Hakaluki Haor in Moulvibazar and Sylhet districts, many

The demand to declare the Sunamganj haor belt as a disaster zone is not a new one, however, farmers and public representatives renew their demand prior to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the area.

Tens of thousands of haor people are still waiting for food and other relief items to reach them. The early flash flood first hit the country's north-eastern region late last month and continued to inundate more and more areas till last week, destroying almost all of the region's Boro crop.

They are rarely seen during the day. As darkness falls, they come out of their nests, make a repetitious call which sounds like knocking on wood, flap their wings and try to catch insects.

For Lulu Mia it is a disaster. First, he loses paddy of eight acres of land and now, six out of seven of his buffaloes following the flashflood in Nandail haor. Following the deaths of livestock, concerns of locals rose even higher in the hoar areas. Blood samples of six dead buffaloes taken for testing to find out cause of death.

People of at least 22 villages of Doarabazar upazila under Sunamganj district are passing days amid panic as the swelling Surma river

Farmers living in and around Hakaluki Haor have been dealt a triple blow with the death of hundreds of ducks they have been farming for their livelihood for years.

Unusually early flash floods late last month in Sunamganj's haor region not only damaged vast tracts of Boro just a month prior to

After devastating vast croplands and death of the fishes in Hakaluki haor, the flash flood caused by last month’s incessant rain has now taken a toll on livestock. Hundreds of ducks have reportedly died in Sylhet's Fenchuganj, where duck farming is a main source of earning livelihood.

Fish in Hakaluki Haor have started dying since Sunday as half-ripe paddy submerged under flashfloods continues to rot and pollute its water.

Asbestos roofs widely used on the houses of the tea garden workers in greater Sylhet region pose high risks of cancer, said health experts and environmentalists.

Bangla New Year Pahela Baishakh will hardly bring any joy to the people of haor areas of Baniachong upazila in Habiganj as flash floods triggered by rain and water from hills have left a large number of farmers in utter despair.

Farmers in the northeastern backswamp are all too familiar with flash floods. Rice paddies grown just once a year in this vast haor remain at the mercy of nature. But thousands of growers in this wetland ecosystem had never experienced flash floods striking this early as in this season, completely destroying paddies in over one lakh hectares of land.

Despite a government ban, illegal hill cutting is rampant in the hilly areas of Moulvibazar.

There is an old saying: “It takes a village to raise a child”. Now another saying could be introduced, “It takes an upazila to save a levee”.