t is distressing to learn that, as a result of continuous river erosion in the Padma river during the peak monsoon seasons, Kuthibari, the historic country house of Rabindranath Tagore at Shelaidah in Kushtia district, along with the homes and lands of the locals in around six villages in the locality, is now facing serious threat of being washed away by the river.
Bangladesh quite often fails to protect and preserve sites of importance and heritage -- often letting them fall to ruin -- and we cannot let an iconic site such as Tagore’s Kuthibari suffer the same fate as so many others.
In addition, river erosion has continued to be a problem for Bangladesh, and despite hundreds of crores of taka dedicated to mitigate this concern, we remain unable to address the issue year on year, resulting in the loss of land and property and sometimes lives, and only increasing the sufferings of people.
While the government had taken steps to protect the Kuthibari from river erosion in 2018 by building an embankment, the locals have claimed that improper implementation of the project has caused it to mostly be useless in protecting Kuthibari and the adjacent areas during the monsoon season.
This simply will not do. We must not only get better at mitigating the adverse effects of river erosion and ease the suffering of the vast masses of people who are directly affected by it, but Bangladesh as a whole must also do a better job of safeguarding and protecting its heritage sites.
