Saturday 12th of July 2025
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Headlines : * Over 2 lakh marooned in Noakhali   * 89th birth anniversary of poet Al Mahmud observed with reverence   * Floods submerge 60 villages in Feni; Army, BGB join rescue efforts   * Consensus reached on key Chief Justice appointment issues: Ali Riaz   * CA directs law enforcers to get ready by Dec for national polls   * Biman’s Dhaka-Narita flight suspension draws flak   * Search continues after Pakistan building collapse kills 14   * At least 13 killed, 20 children missing in Texas floods   * DGHS reduces COVID test fees   * No Bangladesh-China-Pakistan alliance forming: Touhid  

   Features
Foot over Bridge for crabs!
  Date : 12-07-2025

MM Rahmatullah: Though it is unbelievable to us, but really true that there is a footover bridges for crab road crossings. Whenever I have time, I read newspapers in different languages ​​of different countries of the world, it is my old habit. I don`t understand many languages ​​but I see the pictures. Although there are differences in the appearance, color and language of the people in the world, the "language of pictures" is the same all over the world. There is no difference between the language of a Bangladeshi rural girl`s crying picture and the language of the crying picture of a girl from the Achagua tribe in the Amazon jungle of Brazil!

Recently, I was reading The Telegraph, a tabloid newspaper published from Australia. I am speechless when I see a picture! The Australian government has built a few such foot over bridges as shown in the picture just for the crabs!

With the onset of the rainy season each year on Australia`s Christmas Island (October-November), millions of red crabs scattered across the island`s mountains and forests flock to the sea. Their migration originally started as the moon. This means that the rain usually starts when the first full moon of the month of October. At this time the tide is a little higher than other times and this is the breeding season for crabs. As a result, the crabs began to move around the island towards the sea. They go to shore, make nests (holes), breed and lay eggs.

Located a few hundred kilometers south of Jakarta, Indonesia, the 135-square-kilometer island has a motor road along its coast. So during the crab breeding season, millions of crabs would normally be crushed on the wheels of cars and die. lasts for almost a month day and night.

So the Australian authorities have built a special type of crab crossing bridge made of steel. The edges of the road are lined with steel and plastic sheets to face the bridges, so the crabs run in the same direction and cross the road only through the bridge. Roads in some areas are closed, signboards are erected, and public awareness programs are broadcast on the radio.

Hundreds of tourists and zoologists flock here at this time of the year to watch the ‘sea voyage’ of crabs. And the crabs have become quite accustomed to using the bridge in a few years!

There is another story, where Christmas Island rangers have taken road safety to a whole new level with the construction of a "crab bridge" over the island`s busiest road.

In preparation for the annual spawning season, rangers have been setting up barriers along the roadside to prevent the crabs from being crushed under the wheels of cars.

A five-metre-high bridge has also been constructed at one point along the road to help the crabs move across the island and continue their migration.

Christmas Island Tourism Association marketing manager Linda Cash said aside from the practical use, the bridge had also become a tourist attraction.

"Sydney can have its HarborBridge, and San Francisco its Golden Gate bridge, but it`s our crab bridge which is currently wooing tourists from all over the globe," Ms Cash said.

"The ubiquitous crabs take the most direct route possible from their burrows in the rainforest terraces down to the coast, turning the roads, golf course and beaches into a crimson carpet."

Rangers on Christmas Island have also constructed 31 underpasses across the island to assist the migrating crab masses en route to spawn. More than 50 million crabs are expected to be involved in the annual migration, predicted by the Tourism Association to take place on January 6.

Moral: Mentionable that people are not the only civilized people in the world. Many creatures of Almighty Allah SWT`s creation respect the rules of civilization, society and man. They are also part of this world; this world is not just human alone. So, let`s take care of the animals, stop killing animals for no reason.

 



  
  সর্বশেষ
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