On October 22, 2015 Bangladeshi and Indian officials participated in a ceremony of laying the foundation stone for the Rampal power plant, a massive new coal-fired project that will sit on the edge of the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest to be run with imported coal. But opposition to the plant has been mounting since the project was first announced and the same has intensified in recent months.

Our environmentalists are nearly all united on the point that the plant on being commissioned, could sound the death knell of the Sundarbans. They have sent protest notes to the government saying that the environmental impact assessment (EIA) of the project is flawed and called for redoing it honestly and truly transparently. UNESCO and other internal organizations have called for an immediate review of the project or preferably its dropping altogether.

Opponents say that the 1,320 megawatt project could devastate the Sundarbans, Bangladesh’s largest forest and the nation’s last stronghold of the Bengal tiger. They contend that water diversion to the plant, coupled with air and water pollution and heavy coal barge traffic, could leave the Sundarbans – a UNESCO World Heritage site – with an increasingly degraded ecosystem.

First conceived in 2010, the Rampal power plant is a partnership between the Bangladesh Power Development Board and India’s state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), which will share fifty-fifty ownership of the plant, as well as the electricity it produces. Critics justifiably contend that despite being a joint project between India and Bangladesh, Bangladesh will face the adverse environmental and human impacts.

“Coal is big business in India, and no doubt there are powerful interests at play,” says Ashish Fernandes, an expert on coal with Greenpeace India. “If Bangladesh is locked into a coal-dependent energy paradigm, companies like NTPC will make significant profits, at the cost of [Bangladesh’s] people and environment.”

The Sundarbans plays a significant role in our national economy and it is the largest source of forest products in the country. Roughly the size of Lebanon, the Sundarbans is home to at least 330 plant species, 315 bird species, 210 fish species, 49 mammal species, and 59 species of reptiles. Many of the species are endangered, including the Ganges river dolphin; the masked finfoot, a water bird; and the Royal Bengal Tiger. ‘Situating a coal plant near a unique and already stressed ecosystem is inexcusable,’ says an environmental activist.

The coal plant will suck up 9,150 cubic meters of water from the Passur River every hour and run it through a desalination plant. Since mangroves depend on a brackish mix of fresh and salt water, scientists not only fear that water levels in the Passur river will run low, but also that the blend of fresh-and-salt water could be disrupted, dooming swaths of the Sunderban’s mangroves. Furthermore, water dumped back into Passur River will be up 20 to 25 degrees F warmer than the river water, threatening aquatic species.

The water of the Sundarbans and surrounding areas will be affected by discharging cooling water, effluents from the ships, and leaching water of the coal from ships. The Rampal plant will require around 4.72 million tons of coal every year, which the government says will require a ship a day carrying coal through wildlife-rich waters.

Another major concern is the air pollution and toxins generated by the plant, including arsenic, mercury, lead, nickel, and radium. The government says the plant could discharge up to 52,000 tons of sulfur a year, which, depending on the type of coal burned, could lead to acid rain in the Sundarbans and surrounding regions.

According to a recent press note from the government, the plant will only burn “high-quality imported coal,” and “emissions of carbon, sulfur, fly ash and several other sorts of air pollution will be kept at a minimum level to avoid having any adverse impact on the environment.”

However, conservationists and scientists have generally criticized the government’s EIA for downplaying threats and spreading misinformation. Furthermore, critics say the government had already tacitly approved the coal plant before the EIA was even written or submitted to the Environment Ministry for approval.

It was observed that the EIA process was “used as an instrument to rationalize a predetermined project.” In last September, concerned Bangladeshis took their opposition to the streets. At the end of the 400-kilometer march, activist leaders released the “Long March Declaration,” which demanded that the government must cancel the project immediately. Nevertheless, the project is moving ahead. “We have frequently said there are alternatives for producing electricity, but there are no alternatives to the Sundarbans,” the declaration read.