Transnational distress, environmental disasters, and marginal lives in Tahirpur
Tahirpur stands at the frontline of a growing environmental crisis. Cross-border mining in Meghalaya, India, has triggered landslides and floods that are burying Bangladeshi villages under sand and stone
Tahirpur Upazila, located in Sunamganj, a border district, is approximately 300 kilometres from the capital, Dhaka, and situated at the foothills of Meghalaya. Often referred to as the land of clouds, mountains, Niladri Lake, and the magical Jadukata River, the region is renowned for its natural beauty. Yet beneath this allure, Tahirpur is gradually succumbing to deepening hardship and disaster.
I recently travelled there to understand the reality on the ground. More than a million people reside across some twenty villages, including Chanpur, Rajniline, Pahartali, Amtoil, Shantipur, Rajai, and Karaigara.
Among them are many refugees and displaced populations, including the Hajong, Mandi, Khasi, and Bengali communities. Tahirpur occupies a critical position within a transnational context shaped by Meghalaya's coal mines, monsoonal rainfall, steep terrain, recurring environmental disasters, soil erosion, sand and stone deposition, unemployment, unregulated extractive trade along the Jadukata-Rakti river system, border fencing, forced displacement, and complex geopolitics.
Rivers of disaster
Twenty-two rivers flow from India into the haor basin of Bangladesh, joined by numerous streams cascading down from the surrounding hills. In the past, seasonal flooding was a predictable part of life. Communities had generational knowledge of when the floodwaters would arrive, through which rivers, and into which haors. Today, that predictability has collapsed.
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In Meghalaya, unregulated stone and coal mining, coupled with deforestation for infrastructure development, has rendered the hills prone to frequent landslides. When heavy rain falls, the resulting floods carry sand and debris downstream, inundating farmlands, homes, and natural water sources.
Villages in Tahirpur and Bishwambharpur upazilas, especially along the Jadukata River, are being buried under sand from the mountains. Nearly fifty villages—from Karaigara to Dhirendranagar along the border—have begun to resemble desert landscapes. Uprooted from their agrarian livelihoods, many residents have been forced to become wage labourers.
The sand is altering the historic flow of waterways and the pattern of stone sedimentation from the Meghalaya hills, damaging roads, disrupting livelihoods, and severing communication routes. These changes did not happen overnight.
On 20 July 2008, as recounted by locals, five consecutive days of rain triggered a landslide in the Kalapahar region of Meghalaya. Around 500 acres of fertile land across Chanpur, Rajniline, and Pahartali in the North Baradal Union of Tahirpur were buried beneath 4–5 feet of sand and rock. About 300 houses, two schools, two madrasas, a market, four mosques, and the Chanpur BDR (now BGB) camp were damaged.
Though the Upazila administration implemented some relief efforts, no known steps were taken at the national or regional level to prevent further incidents. Meanwhile, displaced residents have been forced to migrate to cities and other districts, becoming environmental refugees.
Multiple dimensions of danger
The hills of Meghalaya, bordering Bangladesh, are home to numerous coal and limestone quarries. The spoil from these operations—soil, sand, and stone—enters Bangladesh through 18 known channels. I witnessed the trade in limestone, sand, and coal with my own eyes. Locals recount that the first major influx of sand and stones occurred during the monsoon season of 2007.
A year later, in 2008, a mountain reportedly collapsed in the middle of the night, sending debris equivalent in size to a single-storey building into the Tahirpur region, devastating lives and livelihoods. Several thousand hectares of small and large haors—around 20 in total—were smothered under layers of sand.
Since then, the floods and landslides have become an annual event. Even after raising their homesteads three or four times in a single year, families still cannot protect their homes. Agricultural land is being rendered barren. Unemployment is rising. A massive internal displacement of workers is underway.
The mines themselves are open-pit tunnels cut directly into the Meghalaya hills. During the rainy season, even slight precipitation can trigger landslides. The stability of these hills is essential not only for the environment but for the livelihoods of both the indigenous peoples and poor Bengali refugees who rely on the wetlands and forested hills for survival.
Today, many risk their lives working in hazardous coal and stone mines. Numerous individuals have died—some buried under collapsing earth, others poisoned by toxic gases trapped inside the mines. Many have lost children.
When the barbed-wire fences on the border sag or are temporarily breached, desperate people slip across before dawn to work illegally in the mines, evading border guards. According to local residents and coal workers, many died in such mines in 2024 alone, though no official statistics exist to confirm the exact numbers
What the state must do
This crisis in Sunamganj and Tahirpur Upazilas has been reported in both local and national newspapers over the years. The then BDR even wrote to India's Border Security Force (BSF), requesting a lasting solution. Local groups, including the 'Wikklib Siyem Jubo Sangha', submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner.
In 2009, the Ministry of Environment and Forests sent a letter to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, calling for diplomatic efforts to curb the destruction of arable land and ecological balance. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs duly informed the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, and the Ministry of Water Resources instructed the Water Development Board to take appropriate measures.
Yet little has changed. The suffering in Tahirpur continues unabated.
Bangladesh alone cannot resolve an environmental disaster that originates upstream in another country. Only collaborative and sustained efforts between Bangladesh and India can bring about meaningful change. The ongoing, unplanned commercial projects in Meghalaya must be urgently reviewed and, where necessary, halted. Both countries must work together to ensure the long-term protection of life, environment, and economic rights in disaster-prone areas like Tahirpur.
A comprehensive state policy must be formulated to safeguard marginal populations and ecosystems at the border. The solution must be rooted in bilateral dialogue, grounded in legal frameworks that respect national sovereignty while responding to the urgent environmental and humanitarian crises on the ground.
Eshita Dastider is an Independent Researcher. Email:edastider@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
