The government on Monday issued a set of guidelines to check uncontrolled tourism to preserve the biodiversity and environment of St Martin's Island, the only coral island in Bangladesh.
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change along with other organizations concerned have taken pragmatic steps to combat uncontrolled tourism to safeguard the biodiversity and overall environment of the island in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, said a ministry release.
The guideline said it has been made mandatory to collect travel passes from the Bangladesh Tourism Board's app for travelling by the approved ships while tourists have been instructed to deposit polythene and one-time usable plastics while entering the vessel.
Eco-friendly jute bags are being distributed to tourists to discourage the use of polythene, the guideline said.
As part of this initiative, 10 teams of the Department of Environment (DoE) are monitoring the use of polythene and plastic in the ships from Saturday to December 31, the release mentioned.