Limiting tourism to St Martin’s is just the first step to saving the island
Since the announcement of new restrictions on tourists to the island, hotel and restaurant owners started strong demonstrations against the move. But judging by the destruction the island has already suffered, there is little option but to double down on such a move
During the early part of the last decade, we visited St Martin's Island with our snorkels almost every year to explore its beauty under the sea. Even then, it was hard to find branch corals, an attractive type resembling the branches of a tree.
Ironically, the easiest place to find a branch coral was Cox's Bazar sea beach, where local traders used to sell them as souvenirs.
As we asked those involved in this business (or should we call them poachers since corals are animals), they would show no remorse for destroying the priceless assets of the island and the sea. One trader smirkingly remarked the 'poribesh' (environment) of the island had deteriorated after the 'poribesh' (meaning the Department of Environment -DoE) arrived there.
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The 'coming' of the DoE - meaning the department being somewhat active on the island - actually just coincided with the expansion of the tourism industry. By that time, islanders were almost done selling all the land adjacent to the beach areas to outsiders. New resorts and hotels were popping up all around, caring little about the regulations to preserve the delicate ecology of the only coral island in the country.
Ever since St Martin's Island became a craze some two and half decades back, there have been calls for government action to restrict tourist influx to the island. Although the last government repeatedly announced such policies, they were never implemented.
However, the current interim government appears serious about realising a plan to put tourism on a leash. According to a recent government decision, no tourist can stay the night on St Martin's island in November.
In December and January, 2,000 tourists will be allowed to spend the night on the island, which will be closed in February to facilitate cleaning efforts and protect the environment. Up to 10,000 tourists usually visit the island during the season, many of whom return on the same day, with thousands staying for the night.
Since the announcement, hotel and restaurant owners of the island started demonstrating against the move. As of writing this story, several rallies, human chains and press conferences have been held in Dhaka, Cox's Bazar and St. Martin's Island, all demanding that the government reverse its decision.
Tourism entrepreneurs have also threatened tougher programmes if their demand is not met.
Systematic destruction
To get a glimpse of the current situation in St Martin's Island, we asked a local businessman, Amin, over the phone yesterday if the branch corals are still harvested from the sea bed.
"No, no," he said, adding, "It stopped long ago."
Asked why, he said, "There's no branch coral left."
Researchers and environmental organisations have been voicing their concerns about the island for a long time.
In 1999, 590 hectares of the island was declared an Ecologically Critical Area (ECA). And in 2022, the government declared 1,743 sq km of the Bay of Bengal adjacent to St Martin's Island a marine protected area.
In 2010, IUCN said that the island had lost its capacity to hold so many tourists and hotel and shipping-related activities.
"Ever increasing population and careless tourism has been pointed out as the number one problem, which is putting a lot of stress on the resources of the island and on the fragile coral ecosystem which shelters a diverse variety of marine biodiversity which is not found anywhere else in Bangladesh," it said.
IUCN identified some threats to the island from human activities that included: oil pollution and heavy metal pollution; sewage pollution from hotels which is piped into the sea; coral extraction for building materials and for souvenir trade; mangrove and sand dunes being cut down and destroyed, continuous loud sound from generators threatening marine life; overfishing and destructive fishing etc.
The organisation also pointed out that sedimentation due to construction, farming and deforestation blanket the coral reefs, smothering the coral. It also stated that trash in the water destroyed the reefs by blocking sunlight. Sea turtles and other marine animals are also vulnerable to eating plastic, taking it for jellyfish, leading to their death.
Apart from corals, sea turtles visiting St Martin's Island have also been badly affected due to human activities and pollution. The nesting population of turtles has severely declined due to the exploitation of eggs and the killing of adult female turtles by fishing and other activities.
Now only a few turtles come to nest on the sandy beaches.
November to April is the sea turtle nesting season, entirely coinciding with the tourism season, when lights, noise and human movement disturb the beach where they lay eggs, after migrating thousands of kilometres. The turtle species visiting the island include Olive Ridley sea turtles, a vulnerable turtle species.
While calling for a reversal of the government's decision to limit tourists on the island, Shiblul Azam Qureshi, Chairman of St Martin's Island Environment and Tourism Protection and Development Alliance, demanded at a press conference earlier this week that water treatment plants be set up on the island to turn the salt water into fresh water.
The tiny island gets its fresh water supply during the rainy season when rainwater recharges its groundwater table. The demand for desalination plants indicates that the groundwater table can no longer sustain the huge number of people who visit the island during the dry season. The use of flash tanks and showers deteriorates the situation. Most tourists rely on bottled water, raising the plastic pollution on the island.
Plastic pollution on the island has reached a level that cleaning the island has become impossible.
The tourists consume a gigantic amount of consumer products, wrapped in plastic packages which are brought from the mainland. The island then ends up polluted with innumerable plastic bottles and packets. Youth-based clean-up movements that organised such campaigns in the past said they could only pick up a small percentage of plastic trash from the island.
The High Court in 2020 directed the authorities concerned to ban single-use plastic products in coastal areas and all hotels and motels across the country in the next year. The ban was never implemented by the last government.
Today, the island's soil and intertidal sediment is filled with microplastic, multiple studies have found.
Sheikh Hasina's government, on 6 August 2020, also decided to allow only 1,250 tourists to visit the island daily, with no permission to stay overnight. That decision too, was never implemented.
Will the current restriction work?
Travel entrepreneurs engaged in conservation efforts have varied opinions on the restrictions imposed by the government.
Niaz Morshed, a travel entrepreneur, cyclist and one of the organisers of several cleanup events at the island said a comprehensive approach is needed to protect the coral island from harmful human activities. He welcomed the restrictions but mentioned some other measures that must be taken.
"There should not be pucca buildings on the island. Resorts and hotels should be made of light-weight, environment-friendly materials, and there should be more tents for tourists," Niaz said.
"Auto-rickshaws plying on the beach must be stopped, it is very harmful to the ecosystem. Also, the island has a high number of dogs, which is unsustainable. They feed on the turtle eggs and other wildlife," he said, suggesting humane measures to control the dog population.
In the past, the native population of the island used a living fence of Keya trees to protect human habitats from strong winds and tidal waves. The trees also help accumulate sand, which people tap into to extend the periphery of the island.
Niaz mentioned that many hotel and resort owners cleared the Keya fence of the island to facilitate a clear view of the sea for the tourists, which has been very harmful to the island.
Sharif Sarwar, an underwater photographer and conservationist, stressed that the government measure will be fruitful if locals are involved in it.
"Since a lot of people are involved in the tourism business, their livelihood should be taken into account before restricting tourist influx. They should be given enough time to figure out what they are going to do in the changed situation," Sharif told TBS.
Livelihoods: seasonal and permanent
At a human chain and protest rally in the capital's Shahbag area on 28 October, Mohammad Rafeuzzaman, president of the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh (TOAB), said, "About 10,000 people live on Saint Martin's Island. All of them depend on tourism. All of them will be affected if tourism is restricted or stopped on the island."
He demanded immediate withdrawal of the decision, stating, "We want to protect the environment and biodiversity of Saint Martin's Island, but not by shutting down tourism. Rather, we advocate for taking all necessary steps that are favourable to the environment."
Another organiser said that the government can give them guidelines on the dos and don'ts, on how they should not use single-use plastic, etc. However, they should not restrict tourists from coming to the island during the four-month tourism season.
Locals say the island has been inhabited by people for at least 175 years, and their main livelihood has been fishing. Tourism has seen massive growth during the last 20 to 25 years. It is pollution due to excessive human activity which has been damaging the fishing industry, along with the government-imposed long 65-day fishing ban in the sea.
Tourism insiders say that the three-four month tourism is not enough for most investors – local or outsiders – to earn their living. Nonetheless, most tour operators on the island also have investments in other tourist locations that help supplement their income.
Since the announcement to limit tourism, the entrepreneurs have been talking about taking measures to keep the island pollution-free, which they hadn't before. Hakim Ali, a local businessman from the island, told TBS that hotel and restaurant owners are now planning to organise in groups to keep the island clean. He said the plans include burying and burning of trash on the island.
Disinformation campaign
The movement against the government's decision to limit tourism is being driven by a sustained disinformation campaign that claims this decision is a prelude to handing over the island to the US, an idea spearheaded by the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina who claimed that a "white man" offered her to make her reelection process in 2024 smoother in exchange of a US naval base in the St Martin's Island.
Without naming Sheikh Hasina or Syeda Rizwana Hasan – the adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change – one of the organisers of the online campaign, Nur, posted, "What the former one said about St Martin's Island might become true, we reckon. We are losing our trust... There is indeed a game going on with the island.
If you directly hand over the island, questions will arise. Therefore, to implement it, one has to be clever and tactful. Today, a prelude has been staged by the lady who worked for the foreigners for a long time."
He also wrote on his Facebook page, Nur St Marin, "We will lose St Martin's in two months if the islanders leave the island."
