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.
In addition, all necessary information regarding tourists' stay at hotels is being recorded in the register, with verbal instructions provided about the rules and regulations to be followed during their visit to this coral island.
Meanwhile, a billboard has also been installed at the Nuniachhara dock with instructions for tourists.
A committee has been formed with the upazila nirbahi officers (UNO) of Teknaf and Cox's Bazar Sadar upazila as the convener to prevent uncontrolled tourism on Saint Martin's while a 21-member monitoring cell was assigned to monitor the ship and tourism activities there.
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.
