Photo : BSS

RAJSHAHI, April 10, 2025 (BSS)- Social watchdogs at a climate strike meeting 
here today unequivocally called for the formation of a drought fund and 
drought policy for the water-stressed Barind region.

They unanimously mentioned that the region has been facing multifarious 
crises caused by the adverse impact of climate change.

In the region, the crises of social violence, biodiversity, living and 
livelihood condition of people and their food security are apprehended to be 
due to heat, drought and water crises acute in future.

Bangladesh Resource Centre for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK) and Barendra 
Region Youth Forum (BYF) jointly organised the climate strike event at Shaheb 
Bazar Zero Point to press home their demands for formation of drought fund 
and drought policy.

BYF President Shaikh Tasnim Jamal and its Joint General Secretary Atikur 
Rahman, BARCIK Regional Coordinator Shahidul Islam, Convener of July 36 
Parishad Mahmud Jamal Kadery, Executive Director of Social Welfare 
Organisation Samrat Raihan, President of Adivasi Juba Parishad Upen Rabidas 
and Youth Unit Convener of Save the Nature and Life Julfiker Ali Haider 
addressed the meeting.
 
Shaikh Tasnim Jamal opined that time-befitting measures need to be adopted 
urgently to boost agricultural production for ensuring food security amid the 
adverse impacts of climatic changes.
 
The ongoing climate change at alarming rates has severely affected winter 
vegetable farming and its diversity creating a real threat to food 
production, he mentioned.

The developed countries should fulfill their commitment to climate funding 
and ensure transparency in use of this fund.
 
Shahidul Islam said the legitimate rights of the farmers and others concerned 
should be protected rightly for the sake of encouraging them towards boosting 
agricultural production to meet up its gradually mounting demands.
 
He referred to the enormous contribution of farmers to the country's 
agricultural development and said the farmers deserve the rights of getting 
all requisite privileges. There is no alternative to protect their interests 
as a whole.

In his remarks, Mahmud Jamal Kadery mentioned the adverse impact of climate 
change has been posing a serious threat to the overall living and livelihood 
condition in the region including its vast Barind tract.
 
He viewed the climate change has been acknowledged as the depletion of 
natural resources and as a major threat to the humanity in the region and 
urged the policy planners and others concerned to take immediate effective 
measures to address the adverse impact of the change caused by global 
warming, reports.