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Environmental Degradation Causes Human Dislocation

by Ayub Ali
THERE is a direct relationship among environmental degradat ion. impoverishment and population displacement. The relationships are complex, multi-dimensional, conditional and determinant. The relationships are historically, socially and politically evident. Environmental degradation produces waves of environmental refugees and migrants that spill across the border and to the urban city with destabilising effects both on domestic order and international stability. This process poses social conflict. The consequences of environmental changes are particularly severe in poor and agriculture communities, whose produc--tion system is mostly dependent on natural cycle and who lack the means to protect themselves through technological innovations.
Types of migration. The environmental refugees refer to especially vulnerable people who are displaced by extreme environmental degradation. People when displaced as a result of sudden and catastrophic changes of the environmental component are called environmental refuges; and population displaced by the gradual deIerioration of the natural environment. where the decision to move is voluntary; and hence, the term should be used environmental migration. This group may well represent the faster growing population of environmental refugees and migrants
The environmental refugees are those who have been forced to leave their traditional habitats, temporarily or permanently, because of a marked environ mental disruption that Jeop ardised their existence or seriously affects their quality of life. People displaced by disruption in the natural environment are not officially classified as refugees About 10 million people in the world are diaplaced not by political problems, but through degradation of the environment
The common forms of environments! degrsdatlon includes desertification land degradation, rising of sea level Induced by global wanning, floods, drought cyclone. tidal surge river ero sion. salinity intuition are displacing more and more
people every year, and such disasters are often not natural. The people of many developing nations are altering their physical environment In a way which makes it more vulnerable to disaster. Rapid Increase of population are over utilising the natural resources and degrading the land which enhance the migration.
With all other factors, environmental degradation by some development intervention caused migration in Bangladesh. Land degradation plays the key role in migration because of the country's agro-based economy. About 90 per cent of the people directly or Indirectly involved in agriculture. So. land degradation caused by river erosion and some ill-conceived development project affect them more than the othv component* of the vironment. The environmental refugees and migrant's thus would include agriculture communities displace by dams, costal communities flushed out by floods or development intervention and people displaced by drought.
Contemporary forces of modernisation process have increasingly marginalised indigenous peoples and a huge number of people were physically displaced as dams and roads have been constructed. Some specific ex amples are Kaptai dam Beel Dakatia. shrimp cultivation areas of the Khulna and Shatkhlra districts, and drought-prone areas of the northern part of the country Frequent river-bank erosion In different parts of Bangladesh has also caused huge rural to urban migration and they are certainly the victims of environmental causes.
Environmental degradation of Kaptai dam area caused migration: To en hance the urbanisation and Industrialisation in the former East Pakistan. Kaptai Hydro-electric Project was undertaken at the cost of Tk 48 crore The project was completed during 1959 1963 with the financial assistance of USAID As an Impact of the dam 54.000 ha arable land became Inundated permanently As a result, more than one lakh tribal
people of the Karnafuli river valley became refugees, who were about one-fourth of total Hill Tract population.
Though the government had the responsibility to rehabilitate the affected people, but most of them did not get any compensation and major ity of the displaced people migrated to India and still they are living as refugees Though the Kaptai Hydroelectricity Project contributed to modernisation and industrialisation process of the country, it has damaged the ecological balance of the whole region. A longterm cost benefit analysis shows that strong negative Impact resulted internal ethnic conflict, threatened international security and disregarded human rights.
Beel Dakatia — a manmade disaster and migration: Beel Dakatia is the second largest waterlogging comprising as of 31.566 ha in Khulna An ill-conceived development project in the 60s brought about an unmitigated environmental disaster for half a million people about two decades. Once It was a vast tract of flourishing agricultural land
This disaster was not spawned by nature but through an ill-conceived and ambitious costal embankment project of the government's Water Development Board, ostensibly to protect vast areas of the region from the onrush of sea water during high tide. But after one decade of embankment built.
the drainage system got choked up for a variety of causes turning whole beel water logged with increasing salinity. Lives of the people living by side of the beel became almost impossible. Agricultural yield decreased and people were dislocated not only from their homes but also from their occupa-
tions leading to serious social anomalies.
River erosion and migration: Bangladesh is predominantly a riverine country. The shifting of major river in the country has long been a dominant environmental problem affecting a sizeable portion of population. Land and the popula-
tion are the two main resources of the country. Thousands of villages located along the banks of the major rivers like Padma. Meghna and Jamuna are highly vulnerable to erosion with any degree of river activities for their alluvial soil. Due to the geophysical condition river channel migration and riverine erosion deprives a hundred thousand pppula-tion of their only source of livelihood and forced them to migrate. The country has around 250 rivers with a stretch of 2400 kilometers of bankline. There are 283 locations and 83 towns and growth centres on the bankline that have been seriously affected by the river erosion and another 1200 km have been identified as vulnerable. During 1954 to 1988. 2000sq km land has been devoured . by river erosion, and a total of 2.695.048 people became homeless and 550.207 acres of land has been devoured in 51 districts during 1990 to 1994.
Drought-prone places in the northwestern part: The* northwestern region was gripped by drought over past few years. Drought occurs because of uncertain and Insufficient rainfall and its uneven distribution. More than 30 districts, which is one-fourth of the total area of the country experiencing moderate to
severe drought, due to Inadequate rainfall, low soil moisture and continuous heatwaves. Now drought is not the temporary phenomena but has became endemic. As a result, agriculture, forest and other natural resources which are the bases of their livelihood are gradually depleting and making inhabitants more vulnerable. Seventy-five per cent of agrilabourer. 60 per cent of small and marginal farmers are becoming dislocated from their occupation which is aggravating rural poverty and forcing people to migrate In urban areas.
Conclusion: Considering all the perspectives, regarding the environmental changes and the population migration nowadays, it has been realised that environmental degradation is an acute cause to population displacement all over the world. In addition, tot,jsco-i nomic. variables, social components also have' profofind' influence. In moif ctotes. such floating families have to live on public lands such as embankment, abandoned railway tracks. Many of them increase the concentration of population in the urban slums. To project environmental migration, environmental accounting should be introduced in development intervention programmes.
The writer is an M.Phil researcher. Department of Sociology. University of Dhaka