Assessing the ecological impact of the mass entry of Rohingya refugees in Ukhia, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh: a remote sensing-based analysis

Abstract

The massive influx of Rohingya refugees to Bangladesh from Myanmar in August 2017, impelled the government of Bangladesh to clear thousands of acres of forestland in Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts to allow their accommodation. Subsequently, the refugees also cut down trees thus resulting in rapid deforestation in that region. Recently, however, the Rohingya refugees in collaboration with UNHCR, have undertaken a massive tree plantation project. In this study, we calculated a Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) using remote sensing data in the Ukhia sub-district to analyze changes that occurred in the years following the 2017 influx and evaluated the effectiveness of the reforestation effort. After calculating the NDVI, we found that there was an implication of a slight increase in vegetation. The results show that the total area of vegetation coverage in February, 2017 was 215 square kilometers and in 2019 it had gone down to 197.92 and by 2023 it had recovered to 235 square kilometers. Thus, we can conclude that the reforestation process should be continued as the changes will become more visible. As Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change, continued deforestation will only aggravate the situation and thus this raises the importance of reforestation.