Chuadanga Correspondent :
Indiscriminate and illegal use of timber as fuel for brick-fields is causing denudation of trees in 10 southern districts.
If trees are cut down at the present rate, the region is likely to be stripped bare and shall have to bear unwelcome environmental consequences, maintain informed sources.
According to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Forest and Environment, there are at present 1150 brick-fields in the 10 southern districts. If an average sized brickfield remains in operation the whole season, it burns about 30 lakh mounds of firewood which means that the brickfields thus burn about 2 corer mounds of wood. To provide this staggering quantum, about 35 lakh medium-sized trees have to be felled.
Local people allege that organized gangs, with the collusion of corrupt Forest officials, cut down the trees planted beside highways, roads embankments and railway lines. The government has enacted a law prohibiting tree felling treating them as public property, but this law is flouted openly.
The districts are Chuadanga, Jhenaidha, Meherput, Kushtia, Magura, Jessore, Narail, Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat.
There are about 850 brick-fields in greater Kushtia and Jessore and none of them use coal and fuel, which they are supposed to do as per government instructions.
When this correspondent visited a brickfield at Alamdanga town area, he saw a stack of coal and huge pile of fire-wood. The owner of the brick field claimed that firewood was necessary to ignite the coal. The workers, however, said in confidence that the coal was there just to official inspectors and would never be used.
Indiscriminate and illegal use of timber as fuel for brick-fields is causing denudation of trees in 10 southern districts.
If trees are cut down at the present rate, the region is likely to be stripped bare and shall have to bear unwelcome environmental consequences, maintain informed sources.
According to a survey carried out by the Ministry of Forest and Environment, there are at present 1150 brick-fields in the 10 southern districts. If an average sized brickfield remains in operation the whole season, it burns about 30 lakh mounds of firewood which means that the brickfields thus burn about 2 corer mounds of wood. To provide this staggering quantum, about 35 lakh medium-sized trees have to be felled.
Local people allege that organized gangs, with the collusion of corrupt Forest officials, cut down the trees planted beside highways, roads embankments and railway lines. The government has enacted a law prohibiting tree felling treating them as public property, but this law is flouted openly.
The districts are Chuadanga, Jhenaidha, Meherput, Kushtia, Magura, Jessore, Narail, Satkhira, Khulna and Bagerhat.
There are about 850 brick-fields in greater Kushtia and Jessore and none of them use coal and fuel, which they are supposed to do as per government instructions.
When this correspondent visited a brickfield at Alamdanga town area, he saw a stack of coal and huge pile of fire-wood. The owner of the brick field claimed that firewood was necessary to ignite the coal. The workers, however, said in confidence that the coal was there just to official inspectors and would never be used.
