Bagerhat Correspondent :
About 5/6 lakh people depend directly on Sundadrban forest for their livelihood, according to ESCAP survey. These people are mainly Bawalis (Wood and Gol leave cutters), Mawals (honey collectors) and Jeles (fishermen).
But no hospital was constructed so far in the forest of Sundarbans for their treatment of those people, though it was a longstanding demand of them . A project was undertaken by the government long 20 years ago to construct 3 (three) hospitals in Sundarban forest for the treatment of the working people of the forest.But no step yet to be taken by any quarter to implement of the project. As a result, a number of working people die every year in the forest without any treatment.
Six lakh people work in Sundarbvan forest measuring 6017 squire kilometers ( According to UNDP and FAO in 1997) through the year for earning their likelihood. 80 per cent of them are Bawalis, Mawals and Jeles who collect forest resources from Sundarbans risking their lives.
Government earns Tk.15/16 crores as revenue from the different sectors of Sundarban forest every year. But the demand for the construction of hospitals or medical centres in the forest for the treatment of those who are playing an important role in earning the government revenue are still neglected.
Bawalis (wood cutters), Jeles (fishermen) and Mawals (honey collectors) come here in search of livelihood, enter the forest after procuring the permits from the forest offices (against scheduled fees) and while they stay in the forest for consecutive several days for collecting forest resources a good number of them become the victims of Royal Bengal tigers, crocodiles, poisonous snakes, pythons, beers and other wild and ferocious, jungle pirates and natural calamities.
Besides , when they are attacked with various diseases and fall ill for want of pure drinking water they are to rush to distant human habitations for their treatment. But it takes long time to reach the destination from the deep forest for getting treatments and consequently, a number of them die on their way.
It is recorded in the forest offices that more than two hundred working people (Bawalis, Jeles and Mawals) died in the forest due to the attack of wild and ferocious animals, jungle pirates, snake bites and various diseases.
But according to non-official sources, more than one thousand working people died due to the reasons mentioned above .during the last 2 decades.
Considering the financial contributions of the working people (fishermen, wood cutters and honey collectors) towards the government treasury an scheme was taken by the government to construct three 10-bed hospitals in the adjacent places of the forest in the year 1963.
