[ALOCHONA] Ruling-party men always lead the forest-gobbling

52 MILLS sawing reserve forests

Ruling-party men always lead the forest-gobbling

Courtesy Daily Star 5/6/11

 

A logging industry flourishes. Horse-drawn carts carry chopped-down trees of Sakhipur Reserve Forest to sawmills setup inside the forest. Inset, one of the sawmills inside the reserve forest. Photo: Mirza Shakil Mirza Shakil, Tangail

As many as 52 illegal sawmills have been set up inside the reserve forests in Sakhipur upazila in the last two and a half years thanks to alleged corruption by foresters and intervention by ruling party men.

This lucrative sawmill business within the reserve forests is a telltale sign of how it contributes to shrinking of the waning greens in the Madhupur Garh region.

According to the government rules, no sawmill can be set up within 10 kilometres of the reserved forests. Surprisingly, most of these illegal sawmills have been set up within only 100-200 metres of the offices of the bit officers of the Department of Forest.

A huge number of trees like shal, gajari, segun and akashmoni worth crores of taka are felled and sliced in these sawmills every day before being trafficked to different places.

The sawmill owners are running their operations allegedly in exchange of hefty monthly payment to the officials concerned, local sources say. Besides, most of the owners are influential local leaders of the ruling party who intervene if the DoF tries to take any action.

According to the DoF, forest in the upazila covers over 44,220 acres of land, of which 38,232 acres has been selected for the reserved forests.

Forty-eight sawmills are situated at 11 forest beats in the upazila and the rest four in the Sakhipur municipal area.

The business started at small scale during the tenure of BNP-led four-party alliance government with the launch of a few sawmills. However, those sawmills were demolished by the caretaker government in 2008.

As the Awami League-led 14-party alliance assumed office in 2009, illegal sawmills began to mushroom in the reserved forests. Local union level leaders of AL mostly set up the sawmills and started wholesale felling of valuable trees.

During a visit to the reserved forest areas including Baheratoil, Bogarchala, Kakrajan, Ailshar Bazar, Durgapur, Betua, Mohanandapur and Gar Govindapur on June 2, these illegal sawmills were found operating in full swing.

Several workers of a sawmill at Holdia Bazar were seen felling trees in an adjacent gajari forest. They however ran away with their tools when they saw this correspondent approaching with a camera.

Jinnat Ali, president of the association of sawmill owners who legally run their business in Sakhipur municipality, said they are incurring huge loss because of the illegal sawmills.

"Though we have filed complaints with the local forest department and urged them to take action several times, no steps have ever been taken," alleged Jinnat, also a member of the upazila unit AL.

Sawkat Shikder, general secretary of the upazila unit AL and chairman of Sakhipur Upazila Parishad, admitted that a few grassroots level leaders of the party may be involved.

"However, my party sincerely wants destruction of these illegal sawmills in order to save the forests. I have already expressed this view at the District Coordination Committee meetings and personally talked with the divisional forest officer. The forest department, however, is not showing any interest in this regard," he added.

Shahidur Rahman, range officer of Baheratoil, refuted the allegation of taking monthly payment from sawmill owners and said the forest department filed cases against the illegal sawmills three months ago.

All sawmills inside the forest were knocked down earlier, said Assistant Forest Conservator (ACF) in Sakhipur GM Kabir, adding, some of those have recently resumed their operations.

"We have already started fresh drives to knock down the illegal sawmills again," he claimed.

Divisional Forest Officer Asit Ranjan Paul in Tangail said the illegal sawmills were set up in the forests using political influence. "Forest officials have already removed five illegal sawmills a few days ago. The drive to remove the rest from the forests is being delayed due to shortage of magistrates," the DFO added.

Sakhipur Upazila Nirbahi Officer Mozibor Rahman, also member of the district forest and environment committee, told The Daily Star the upazila administration has not approved any sawmills in the forests.

"The district administration has already appointed a magistrate to launch drives to destroy the illegal sawmills in the forest as soon as possible, the UNO added.

LOCATION OF ILLEGAL SAWMILLS
Most of the illegal sawmills fall in five forest bits under the Baheratoil Range. Two of them are in Nakshala, two in Betua, one in Dariapur, two in Dubail, one in Gohailbari, one in Bogarchala, one in Holdia Bazar, one in Ailser Bazar, two in Barochaona, three in Kutubpur, two in Debraj, one in Araipara, two in Moricha, two in Hamidpur, one in Barochala, one in Mohanandapur, one in Basarchala, one in Durgapur, two in Indrajani, one in Toildhara, one in Dopar Par, one in Dhondhonia, one in Kalia, three in Namdarpur, and one in Kachua.

Under the Hotea and Bashtoil ranges, two sawmills are situated in Kalidas, one in Ichhadighi, one in Patharpur, one in Boalee, one in Deodighi, two in Hotea and two in Taktarchala in the Kalidas, Kalmegha, Koroychala, Hotea Sadar, Bazail and Nalua forest bits.

The rest were set up adjacent to the forests in the municipal areas and two of these are in the forests of Gar Govindapur.

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