Leaders of Awami League (AL) yesterday called for a social movement to create awareness among the people of all walks of life in an effort to resolve environmental problems the country is facing severely.

They also underscored the need for taking long-term planning and planned forestry to presene the country and its environment from

natural calamities.

“We will have to launch a social movement and to go for planned forestry to protect the country and its environment,” said AL presidium member Abdur Razzak at a roundtable on 'Environmental hazards in Bangladesh and our responsibilities' at Engineers’ Institute auditorium in the city.

AL’s sub-committee on environment organised the roundtable on the occasion of the World

Environment Day.

Dr Subrata Kumar Saha of Geology Department at Dhaka University presented a keynote paper at the programme which was moderated by forest and environment affairs secretary to the AL central working committee Dr Hasan Mahmud.

AL presidium member Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury, leaders Abdul Mannan, Shubid Ali Bhuiyan, advocate Rahmat Ali, Nurul Islam Nahid and Dr Dipu Moni spoke at the roundtable with AL advisory council member MA Mannan in the chair.

Addressing the discussion, the AL leaders called on the government to make the Buriganga rive pollution-free immediately to save the city. They also demanded the government to cancel its agreement with US oil company Chevron on seismic survey at the Lawachhara reserve forest in Moulvibazar.

The government should take quick decision as the eco-sensitive Lawachhara forest has already been harmed badly by the three-dimensional seismic survey of the company, they observed.

"Now it is up to the government to decide whether it will let Chevron destroy the forest or stop it," said Sajeda Chowdhury, a formerforest and environment minister. Ecological balance has been destroyed in the Chittagong due to cuttingofhills, she added.

She observed that the port city would wash away into the Bay of Bengal after 30 years if the situation continues.

Abdur Razzak further said the government should be more careful in protecting the country's environment. He also urged the government to protect the country's sole mangrove forest the Sundarbans, otherwise, what he said, three crores of people of Khulna region would be homeless in near future.