When I reached the sea beach on a Wednesday afternoon after walking down around ten kilometres of muddy land and wading through half a dozen canals only one word came out from my mouth ‘amazing’. I wondered whether I was watching a programme on the Discovery or National Geography channel. Located around 40 kilometres away from Hatia Upazila, Noakhali, was this unspoilt stretch of a sandy sea beach, a rare gem waiting to be discovered.On one side a calm and quiet untouched beach lay on the lap of the sea, on the other side thousands of birds chirped in the air, amid herds of cattle grazing around on the vast green grass land along the beach. The air was filled with the sweet warbling of birds. The flocks of migratory ducks in rows were swinging on the smaller waves in the nearby sea water. I was surprised that such a natural gift had remained unnoticed by the government officials and people in the main land.The beach is regularly charmed with the melodies of thousands of local and migratory birds. Birds flock there for the small fishes available on the swampy land along the long sea beach. Sun rises and sunsets are equally spectacular making this spot an idyllic haven for tourists and nature lovers.The sandy sea beach developed in the southern part of Damar Char (island) on the opposite side of the River Meghna near Nijhum Dwip. The locals said the sands began accumulating there since 2005 and recently took the shape of a sandy sea beach. It is around ten kilometres far from Nijhum Dwip in Hatiya under Noakhali district.Now, one third of Damar Char is covered by a mangrove forest and the remaining two third lands are green grassland. Herds of cows and buffaloes belonging to the influential of Hatia and Nijhum Dwip, move about freely. Ordinary people hardly go there because of fear of pirates who lurk about in gangs, the remoteness of the area being ideal for hideouts. They take easy shelter in the nearby forest to hide from the law enforcing agents.So far the existence of such a sea beach is unknown to the people of Noakhali and Hatia. Even the people in Nijhum Dwip did not know that such an attractive sea beach exists in Damar Char. The locals call the area which is covered by white and black sands ‘Dail’ or ‘Sagartila’. In local language, Dail means ‘where sand piles up’.“We do not know the existence of any sea beach in Damar Char. There is a Dail where lot of sands were piled up by the sea water,” said Mehraj Uddin, chairman of Nijhum Dwip Union Parishad. He said people go there for fishing in the nearby sea and for catching big size crabs on the surface.When asked whether the government conducted any survey on Damar Char the UP chairman said, the lands in Dail are still under the ministry of forest and surveys are mainly conducted on the lands which become cultivable. According to him, the total size of Damar Char would be around 30 kilometers long and 20 kilometers wide. The government officials are also not aware of anything such development in Damar Char.“The area is very remote and I am yet to go there as I joined very recently,” said Abul Hossen Mohammad Moyeen Uddin, the Hatia Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) over telephone. When asked he also expressed his ignorance about Sagartila. He, however, said he had heard of a small sea beach in Nijhum Dwip but not in Damar Char.M Helal Uddin, a prominent journalist in Hatiya and the editor of the weekly Hatia Kantha also expressed his ignorance about a sea beach in Damar Char. “So far my knowledge goes there is no sea beach in Damar Char.” He said there is a small sea beach in the area that is located in Nijhum Dwip.The government has no plans to develop tourism facilities. M Moazzem Hossein, General Manager planning of state-owned Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (BPC) said he has no knowledge about any sea beach in Damar Char. “As the manager of planning, I must have known if there was any plan of the government.” He, however, said government has some plans to develop tourism facilities in Nijhum Dwip.Mostafizur Rahman a retired high official of (BPC) hailing from Noakhali district also said he had never heard of any sandy beach in the coast of Noakhali district. Rahman served the BPC for over 20 years.A local leader of landless people in the area, Abdul Malek, frequently visited Damar Char for land purposes. Malek accompanied me to the spot. He also did not have any idea about having any sandy sea beach there. Malek used to call the area Sagartila.I reached Sagartila on November 20, at around 12 noon. The water along the beach was white mixed with sand but the locals said it turns light blue in mid- winter. The beach remains up all year round and never submerges not even in high tide except if there is a big natural calamity like a tsunami or cyclone. “We never heard of sSagartila submerging except during a high surge like when there is a danger signal number 10,” Malek said.The beach is around 10-15 kilometres long stretching from the West to the East. The natural beauty of the new born beach is very similar to the sea beach in Cox’s Bazar termed as the longest sea beach in the world. There are two types of sands in the beach, black and white. The black sand is called black gold for its richness in uranium. The upper side of the beach is covered with white sand and lower part is rich with black sand. The flocks of red crabs also become visible on the white sand in the upper side of the beach like Cox’s bazaar.There are many attractions in this newly borne sea beach for the visitors and nature lovers. The holiday goers can spend hour after hour watching numerous birds with various colours and characters flocking on the beach. The beach area is free from any sort of air and sound pollution. There is no road, no motor vehicles in Damar Char. You will not find even a single cycle or rickshaw here.The vast grassland will soothe the eyes of the visitors. The nearby mangrove forest also has deer, fox and big snakes. Wildlife is seldom visible as animals hardly come out of the forest during the day time. But some signs of their coming out in the night are visible in the nearby fields.(thedailystar.net)ANN.Az