Save Sundarban

The company planned to build an open pit coal-mining factory, in Dinajpur, Phulbari. A lush green farming townlarge region in Northern Bangladesh. The plan would displace local farmers, an open pit would have drained the surrounding underground water, turning the farming community into a dry and dusty desert town.

The farmers, despite having been promised housing and free education for their children, opposed the proposition of having an open pit coal mining facility in their town. Faced with the possibility of seeing their community turned into a hustling and bustling industrial town in one swift move and foreseeing the drastic changes that such a move would bring to their way of life and to the environment, the community at large, farmers, tribal people, shop owners, etc. united to rise up to say NO to coal mining.

The government kept their position; to demonstrate their power, and as a way of intimidation, the army was ordered to fire upon the peaceful protesters. There were people beaten, arrested, murdered… Only after a national and international outcry did the government backed off.

Ten years later, the current government wants to build a power plant in Sundarban. A new government, new location, but the same old fight! The government plans to build the Rampal Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant, right on top of the Sundarban Jungle.