A high-profile Unesco delegation will visit the Sundarbans soon to assess the possible impacts of the proposed coal-based Rampal power plant on the world's largest mangrove forest.

“Unesco wants to send its team this month [February], but we've requested them to be here next month,” Chief Conservator of Forests Yunus Ali told UNB.

He said the Unesco team is going to visit the Sundarbans as it is a Unesco World Heritage site. “The delegation will assess the potential impacts of the proposed Rampal power plant and see what remedial measures have been taken to address the possible impacts.”

An official at Unesco Dhaka office said the delegation would visit Bangladesh in late February or early next month.

On December 9, 2014, there had been huge oil spill at the Shela River in the Sundarbans when an oil tanker carrying about 350,000 litres of furnace oil crashed in the river after colliding with a cargo vessel.

Yunus said the delegation of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will also examine whether there is any impact of the oil spill on the Sundarbans, a habitat to Bengal tigers and endangered Irrawaddy dolphins.

The mangrove forest is situated about 14 kilometres away from the proposed 1,320-megawatt coal-based power plant site. However, the peripheral area of the forest begins within four kilometres from the power plant.

The project is a joint venture of Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) and the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited of India under the name of Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company.

Environment experts warned that the power project would bring more harm to the country than good, destroying the World Heritage site, since the climate, topography, land use pattern, wetlands, floral and faunal diversity and quality of air and water in the Sundarbans will be affected due to the power plant.

“The Sundarbans will face a long-term impact. Physical growth of plants, their flowering and fruiting will be affected severely while the breeding capacity of birds and wildlife of the forest will be lost,” said Prof Abdullah Harun Chowdhury, a professor of environmental science department at Khulna University.

According to the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project, the Rampal power plant will produce 7.5 lakh tonnes of fly ash and 2 lakh tonnes of bottom ash per year. About 15 percent of the ash will be generated as a result of burning coal.

Citing an independent EIA, Prof Harun said the wind flow of the area indicates that the Sundarbans will be affected by the toxic gases and ashes of the coal-based power plant in different seasons. As the ashes contain sulphur, carbon dioxide, arsenic, mercury, lead, chromium, and cadmium, it will bring harm to the environment, he added.