The Department of Environment (DoE) sealed Experience Textiles Ltd, a Pakistani venture for fabric dyeing at Bhaluka in Mymensingh, and fined it Tk 2.24 crore for polluting over 232 acres of agricultural land. This is the highest amount of fine ever imposed by the DoE. Officials involved in the DoE drive that detected such a massive pollution said the factory authorities kept their effluent treatment plant (ETP) shut, and were discharging liquid toxic pollutants through a pipeline in Kakchhara and Sadhuya beels (wetlands) and agricultural lands around. They wanted to hide their misdeed by covering with large polythene sheets the spot where the pollutants are discharged from the pipeline, said Mohammad Munir Chowdhury, DoE director of enforcement and monitoring. - The Daily Star, December 30,2010.