Voice of Insaf: St. Martin’s Island has had limited visitors for more than a month to protect the environment, but the people who live there are encountering more and more problems. The tourism business, which used to be very strong, is now in decline. This is making life hard for people in the area, and contamination of the environment continues to be a problem. The government put tourism restrictions in place on St. Martin, Bangladesh’s sole coral island, in 2024. The new policy says that the island can only have 2,000 people at a time and only allows overnight visits in December and January. But because of restrictions in November, there weren’t many tourists on the island.
People in the area are upset that the environment keeps becoming worse even though the government is trying to regulate it. There is still plastic and polythene trash all over beaches and roadsides since there aren’t any good ways to manage and clean up trash. Unregulated building of cottages and cutting down of mangroves are also still going on, making the island’s pollution situation worse.
Because there aren’t many ferries and they depend on the Bakkhali River’s tides, many tourists are stuck at the Nuniarchar terminal for hours without any proper facilities like waiting areas, restrooms, or shelters. This makes conditions inhumane, especially for women, children, and the elderly in the cold.
Many people have also criticised the government’s new travel pass scheme. The required travel passes for tourists, tour operators, journalists, investors, and even local residents have made people angry, and many say the rules are unfair and infringe their rights. People who live in the area say that even when they are there for business or personal reasons, they are treated like tourists.
Most of the island’s 12,500 population made a living from tourism. But many families are now out of job since tourism is down. More than half of the hotels and homestays in the area are empty, but big resorts owned by investors from Dhaka are filled. Because of this, many in the area are having a hard time making ends meet, and some have to sell their homes, property, and other important items to stay alive.
The economy is also hurting schools and hospitals. Students are having to pay more to stay in Teknaf for their studies because there aren’t enough teachers and there aren’t any college or public test centres. Healthcare is also bad; a 20-bed hospital can’t work right since there aren’t enough physicians, so many people can’t afford to go to nearby towns for treatment.
People who live there don’t want tourism to stop completely; they only want it to change to more environmentally friendly ways of doing things. They also want to have access to education, healthcare, and other ways to make a living, as well as basic infrastructure like electricity, ambulances, food storage facilities, training centres, and disaster shelters. People in the area say that tourism limitations shouldn’t be put in place without talking to the people who live on the island first to make sure that St. Martin’s future is good for everyone.
Siddikur Rahman
Cox’s Bazar
