Samadhi Hansani, ELAW Global Exchange Fellow
We are pleased to announce our new ELAW “Global Exchange” Fellows Program!
Last week, Sri Lankan attorney Samadhi Hansani successfully completed our inaugural Global Exchange Fellowship. She traveled from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to Dhaka, Bangladesh, and spent two weeks working with ELAW partners at the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA).
“It was life-changing to be an eyewitness to environmental struggles in Bangladesh and BELA’s impressive work,” said Samadhi, who has served as Legal Officer at the Centre for Environmental Justice (CEJ) since 2021.
An ELAW Global Exchange Fellowship makes it possible for ELAW partners to visit each other’s offices, share experiences, build alliances, and strengthen work to protect communities and the environment through law.
BELA’s Acting Chief Executive, Taslima Islam, worked closely with Samadhi and ELAW to create a program to meet Samadhi’s needs.
Samadhi’s Fellowship began with participation in BELA’s annual review and planning meeting, joining more than 40 BELA officials from all eight divisions.
“Our team enjoyed learning about CEJ’s work,” said Taslima, who assigned team members to accompany Samadhi and engage in discussions about BELA’s legal strategies and dozens of legal cases.
Samadhi had an insightful tour of critical environmental areas in and around Dhaka. She learned about pressing urban issues, including air, water, river, and industrial pollution, and protecting parks and playgrounds. She also saw unauthorized housing projects, including Modhumoti Model Town, the site of a major BELA court victory defeating land grabbers and protecting flood zones and wetlands.
Her visits along the Buriganga and Bongshi rivers and surrounding canals enriched her understanding of BELA’s legal battles to protect rivers and wetlands. She also visited the nearby district of Manikganj to tour the Prackritic Krishi sustainable farm operation.

In Sylhet, a city in eastern Bangladesh renowned for its tea gardens, hills, and tropical forests, Samadhi participated in a public hearing with community members, government officials, NGOs, media representatives, and legal experts discussing the challenges of hill cutting. During the event (photo at right), she had the opportunity to address the audience, sharing insights from Sri Lanka and the legal framework used in Sri Lanka to tackle similar problems.
She also visited unauthorized stone-crushing units and the Jaflong (Dawki-Piain) River, an Ecologically Critical Area, where she gained valuable perspectives from BELA team members on their ongoing efforts to combat destructive environmental activities.
Finally, she visited the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. “This was a highlight,” said Samadhi, describing the valuable opportunity to learn about the country’s judicial system, its structure, and current cases.
Before heading home, she had an opportunity to meet Syeda Rizwana Hasan, now serving as an Advisor to the Interim Government of Bangladesh for the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change and Ministry of Water Resources.
“In the year ahead, I hope to foster collaboration between CEJ and BELA to address critical issues, including plastic pollution, elephant deaths, sand mining, air pollution, deforestation, wetland conservation, river protection, and more,” said Samadhi. “I will use the knowledge gained from the Global Exchange Fellowship to contribute to the conservation of nature in Sri Lanka.”
Many thanks to BELA for hosting Samadhi. And thanks to Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin – and Oceankind for making this Global Exchange Fellowship possible.

Maggie Keenan
Communications Directors and Fellows Program Coordinator
Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide