The government yesterday sealed the navigation route through the Sela River in the Sundarbans for all kinds of vessels including small boats to make sure that the visiting UN team of experts gets to work without any disturbance.
The team of experts from the United Nations arrived at the Sundarbans on Monday to investigate the place of the oil spill and assess its impact on the environment.
A forest official said the ban will remain effective until further notice.
On December 11 – two days after a tanker vessel sank with over 350,000 litres of furnace oil – the Forest Department and the BIWTA temporarily banned movement of commercial vessels along the Sela River; that ban is still in place.
The UN team talked to media yesterday at Andharmanik in the Sundarbans following a two-day visit to the area. They said they will make their findings public and submit a report to the Bangladesh government at the month’s end.
Amelia Walstrom, chief of the UN expert team, told journalists: “We are studying the environment, wildlife, forest and the potential impact on humans...Since this is a collaboration, we are working closely with the national experts as well,” she said.
Walstrom said the team will stay in the Sundarbans for three more days and then hold a press conference in Dhaka after submitting report to the government on December 31.