Our Correspondent :
In Kapasia upazila of Gazipur district, trees are being uprooted freely from the government forest reserved in several unions including Rayed, Barahar, Singhshree. The environment is under threat. There are allegations that a class of people is constantly cutting down trees from the forest by managing the dishonest officials of the forest department. However, as always, the forest department due to lack of manpower. But in the darkness of the night, Dazarse is illegally cutting gajari trees. The forest is losing its heritage due to the indifference and silence of the forest officials.
Protected forests have been created to maintain the balance of the environment. Although it is forbidden to enter the protected forest, they are cutting down the trees on the pretext of collecting fuel wood and leaves. Besides, an influential local gang has been cutting down and smuggling Gajari trees at night for a long time. The whole forest is imprinted with the various species of trees that are constantly cut down. Going to the forest, it was seen that the roots of the newly cut trees and the cut trees were lying in different places. After getting the news from the local sources, the forest officials left the forest area for some mysterious reason. One of the officials’ excuse was that it was not possible to take full care of the forest as there were not enough manpower to manage the forest area over a large area.
According to the locals, for a long time now, the perpetrators of these misdeeds have been cutting down thousands of trees in the dark of the night from various government Gazari forests in the upazila and smuggling them elsewhere. A forest official, who did not want to be named, said that under the umbrella of some local officials of the forest department and influential quarters, the forest rangers have been smuggling illegal carrots from government forests to different parts of the country for a long time. The concerned Sreepur Range Officer recently seized hundreds of Gajari sacrifices from different places with the help of the locals during the illegal smuggling in the dark of night. In this regard, Gosinga Beat Officer Monirul Karim said, legal action will be taken after checking the legitimacy of the seized Gazari timber.
What legal action has been taken after several Gajari trees were seized and rescued in an abandoned condition? Avoid being able to give a good answer to such a question.
According to land management guidelines, a country needs to have 25 percent forest land. The forest department claims that the amount of forest land in Bangladesh is 16 percent. As such, the country still needs 6 percent forest land. However, the forest department is also indifferent in protecting what is left of the new forest.
