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Land erosion by the River Brahmaputra has demolished 400 houses in six villages of Merurchar union, and in eight villages of Sadhurpara union under Bakshiganj upazila in Jamalpur within the past 20 days.
   The affected people have taken shelter at safer places with their belongings. Increasing number of arable land, houses, and trees are falling into the river every day.
   The threatened villages are Shekerchar, Uzankalkihara, Madererchar, Maysanerhar, Fakirpara, Baghaduba, Madanerchar, Merurchar, Vati Kalkihara, Sadurpara, and Purba Fakirpara.
   Meanwhile, 30 government primary schools under Yatibalkihara union, 25 government primary schools in Shadurpar union and a community school under the upazila have fallen into the river. The classes of these schools are now convening under open sky.
   Abu Bakkar Siddique, 40, Hazi Abdul Jalil, 56, Humayun member, 45, and Abul Hossain, 50 of Vati Kalkihara village told New Age that they had moved their houses several times for safety but in vain.
   The erosion affected families have taken shelters on embankments, high lands, and on the outskirts of the town.

The army and police recovered arms and military equipment, including two light guns and two grenades, from Naikhyangchhari in Bandarban, and from Panchari in Khagrachari early Friday.
   The police recovered the LGs and arrested a suspected arms smuggler, Ismail, 35, from Baishari in Naikhyangchhari.
   The officer-in-charge of the Naikhyangchhari police station, Kamrul Hasan, said quoting Ismail that the LGs had been brought there for sale.
   A case was lodged with the police in this connection.
   News agency BDNEWS from Khagrachari adds that army personnel in a raid recovered arms and military equipment from remote Sontila of Panchari upazila Friday morning.
   The army sources said army patrol has been intensified there after the recovery of two grenades, four detonators, eight bullets for 303 rifles, one wireless communication set, a micro cassette, 15 pairs of uniform, pictures and files.
   The suspects fled the place leaving the arms and ammunition as they sensed the presence of army patrol, local sources said.

In this breeding season for hilsas in the monsoon the markets of Jhenaidah are flooded with hilsa fry ignoring a government ban.
   Some experts on fishery said the country will be without Hilsa within few years if the practice of catching fry continues.
   According to the government ban only Hilsas weighing at least 600 grams should be brought to the market for sale.
   But the scenario is quiet contrary in reality.
   Our correspondent found that hilsa fry constituted at least 80 per cent of the total sale in the fish markets during a visit in mid August to the weekly markets at Garaganj in Jhenaidah.
   Some of the fish traders said hilsas weighing over 500 grams were sold between Tk 240 and Tk 250 per kilogram while the fry were sold between Tk 150 and Tk 180.
   The local administration said legal action against the fry sellers would be taken to ensure proper growth of hilsas. Prices of other fishes also went up keeping pace with the price of hilsas.

Seeds worth about Tk 1 crore were reportedly damaged at the lone Agriculture Research Centre at Raikhali under Kaptai upazila in Rangamati as electricity supply was disrupted following an explosion that occurred at the 200KV generator on August 10, said officials at the centre.
   The seeds, usually preserved in cold temperature in refrigerators and ovens, have become unfit to germinate as refrigerators and ovens became inoperative in absence of electricity for 10 days at a stretch, said Mohammad Moniruzzaman, senior scientific officer of the research centre.
   The centre has been conducting research on development of the agriculture system and seeds of different varieties of vegetable for the past four decades which has boosted the agro-based economy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts to a significant degree.
   Moniruzzaman said the seeds were completely damaged. He said it would be difficult to collect them again and a few of the varieties might not be available.
   Daily activities at the centre came to a standstill with the disruption of electricity, which also left the computers inoperative, said Monir. Scarcity of water also took a severe turn as electric pumps could not be operated either.
   Personnel from the nearby Kaptai electric supply sub-station of the Rangamati Electric Supply and Distribution Division took away the generator to get it repaired a day after the mishap.
   Generators may have accidents and stop functioning anytime, said the executive engineer of the distribution division.
   Alternative steps will be taken to restore supply of electricity to the centre, if it takes more time to repair the generator, he said.
   Apart from the losses incurred to the centre, costly medicine used at the breeding centre of the livestock department at Raikhali was also damaged, said officials.
   Forces of the Chandraghona police station along with about 15,000 people of Raikhali were also plunged into darkness due to the power outage.

One person was missing and five others were injured as an oil tanker collided head on with a cargo vessel laden with sand in the River Sandhya near the Kawkhali Ferry Ghat in Pirojpur on Friday.
   The police said the oil tanker MV Ever Green hit the cargo vessel MV Lisa bound for Noapara in Jessore from Dhaka.
   The cargo instantly sank. A crew of the vessel Abul Khair, 38, was missing since the accident.
   A case was filed with the Kawkhali police in this connection.

The Department of Agriculture Extension has taken an intensive aman paddy cultivation programme in Faridpur.
   The DAE sources said 21,029 hectares of land have so far been brought under the programme with a target to produce 42,528 tonnes of rice.
   Seventeen thousand eight hundred sixty four hectares were brought under high yielding varieties while the rest were brought under local varieties.
   To ensure a better yield, the department has prepared seedbeds of transplanted aman on 1,127 hectares of land.
   Agriculture experts in Faridpur said the target is expected to be achieved
   if the climate remained favourable.