Staff Reporter
Considering environmental factors, the government has decided to suspend the leasing process of 17 out of 51 stone quarries in the country. No leases will be granted for quarries that are under court injunctions or located within declared Ecologically Critical Areas (ECA). Additionally, to preserve natural beauty, the leasing activities in the Bhulagonj, Utmachaora, Ratanpur, Bichanakandi, and Lovachora stone quarries of Sylhet district will also remain suspended.

This decision was taken Sunday, 27 April 2025, at a meeting held at the conference room of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources, chaired by Advisor Muhammad Faozul Kabir Khan. Advisor Syeda Rizwana Hasan from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and Advisor Lieutenant General (Retd.) Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury from the Ministries of Home Affairs and Agriculture were also present.

The meeting further decided that before granting leases for other quarries, obtaining an Environmental Clearance Certificate from the Department of Environment will be mandatory. Local administrations have been directed to take legal action against the actual responsible persons involved in illegal stone extraction, rather than targeting the workers. Additionally, illegally extracted stones must not be sold; instead, they will be supplied for government construction works through customs.

In this regard, the Environment Advisor thanked the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources and suggested that a similar policy could be adopted to control unregulated sand extraction as well. She emphasized that such steps would protect the environment and public interest, ensuring the lawful use of natural resources like sand and stones. Supplying illegally extracted stones through customs for government use would also help curb illegal extraction.
The Advisor also mentioned that, overcoming previous limitations, the Department of Environment is now better prepared to take appropriate measures to protect the environment and ecosystems.

It is noteworthy that on 18 February 2020, the Energy and Mineral Resources Division of the Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources had suspended stone extraction from all stone quarries until further notice. Later, on 13 January 2025, a decision was made to lift the suspension, which raised concerns from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Consequently, today’s meeting resulted in these new decisions.

The meeting was attended by Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Dr. Farhina Ahmed, Secretary of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division Mohammad Saiful Islam, Divisional Commissioner of Sylhet Division and Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet District, along with representatives of various ministries and organizations.