Bangladesh’s High Court ordered on Thursday that all illegal brick kilns across the country be closed immediately and directed the Department of Environment and the country’s divisional commissioners to report back by 14 December on how earlier removal orders have been carried out.
The order
The bench of Justice J B M Hasan and Justice Aziz Ahmed Bhuiyan issued the directive to all divisional commissioners and to the Director-General of the Department of Environment, according to the Bengali-language daily Ittefaq and the Bangla daily Prothom Alo. At the same time, the court cautioned that owners of legal brick kilns must not be subjected to harassment as officials act on the order, a point carried by several Bangladeshi outlets, including Dhaka Times24 and Jago News24.
Speaking to reporters after the hearing, the petitioner’s senior advocate, Manzil Morshed, said the court had asked the environment department and the divisional commissioners to file a report by 14 December on the steps taken to implement previous directives. He was assisted by Md Sarwar Ahad Chowdhury and Sanjay Mandal. Muntasir Uddin Ahmed appeared for the Department of Environment, and Mohammad Ali for the brick-kiln owners.
How the case reached this point
The case began in 2022, when the human rights and environmental organisation Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB) filed a writ over unlicensed and illegal brick kilns. On 13 November 2022, the High Court issued a rule and an order to stop illegal kilns. Later orders, on 4 March 2024, 28 November 2024 and 25 February 2025, directed that the full removal process be completed and reported to the court.
According to Jago News24, HRPB learned that kilns which had been shut were preparing to restart before the new brick-making season, and filed a supplementary application last week. Thursday’s order followed a hearing on that application.
Why brick kilns matter
Brick kilns are a well-documented source of air pollution in Bangladesh. A 2011 World Bank study of the sector found that in the cluster north of Dhaka, brick kilns were the city’s main source of fine particulate pollution, accounting for nearly 40 per cent of it during their five-month operating season, and that about 95 per cent of kilns used outdated, energy-intensive technology. Those findings describe conditions measured well before this week’s order and are the backdrop to the successive rounds of litigation, not evidence about any individual kiln.
What happens next
The 14 December deadline is for a report to the court on the implementation of earlier orders. It is not necessarily a deadline for completing the removal of every illegal kiln, and the case remains before the High Court. Enforcement rests with the divisional administrations and the Department of Environment.
It is also not yet clear how many kilns are currently considered illegal or how many operate with licences. The Bangladeshi reports on Thursday’s order did not give a figure, and Daily Lens has not been able to establish one from an official source.
Jago News24 reported that Morshed told the hearing that authorities had previously filed reports showing only partial measures had been taken, despite repeated court orders since 2022.
Sources: Ittefaq; Prothom Alo; Jago News24; Dhaka Times24; Bangla Tribune; World Bank (2011).
Image: Frameofashik, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. File photo — workers shaping bricks at a brick kiln in Bangladesh.