Besides, an unspecified number of hills were cut in Golapganj, Beanibazar and Fenchuganj upazilas in the district and Barlekha and Kulaura in Moulvibazar district, the officials said. Most of the hills were ravaged for housing projects and building homes by individuals.

Local influentials, mainly political leaders of ruling and opposition parties, were directly or indirectly involved in the hill cutting, done allegedly with the help of a section of government officials, the sources said. The Department of Environment (DoE) recently started a survey on hill cutting in Sylhet.

"We hope it would be completed in a week or two. After the survey, we will submit a detailed report to higher authorities", an official of DoE said.

He said 25 cases filed by the department in Sylhet is pending with court.

"Two cases were disposed off in our favour and charge sheets in some other cases will be submitted soon", he said.

The department is preparing to file 20 more cases, the DoE official said.

Hills were cut indiscriminately by influential groups having political clout mainly because of inaction by officials concerned who often feared reprisal, he claimed.

In many cases, officials were almost silent spectators as the offenders had links with bigwigs in government or major political parties, he said.

Another cause was rapid urbanisation and pressure for housing projects as number of people migrating to towns from rural areas increased.

Sharp rise in value of land prompted many people to level hills for sale or go for real estate business.

The rising number of expatriates and remittances also played a big role in this regard, while there was virtually no protest against hill cutting barring by some NGOs and citizens' groups, sources said.

Law enforcers took some measures occasionally at places and caught some people for hill cutting but most of tem were innocent day labourers or truckers while the real culprits remained untouched as the raids were allegedly just an eye-wash, the sources said.

Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) issued some legal notices on people engaged in hill cutting in 2006 in Sylhet Sadar and Golapganj upazilas. Hill cutting stopped for days in certain areas but resumed again.

Bela filed a case in favour of 400 poor families, who were about to be evicted by authorities of state run Chhatak Cement Factory from Fakirtila hillock in Chhatak and Nasimpur Tila in Doarabazar in March last year.

The factory authorities attempted to evict them to collect earth by cutting hill from the government-owned hillock, violating government order. The 400 families had been living there with permission from district administration and paying taxes. Following the move by Bela, the High Court stopped the hill cutting there.

Many government departments also cut hills to set up new institutions and for other purposes.

Sylhet divisional stadium, named after former president Ziaur Rahman, was built near Lackatoora hills on the city suburb. Part of the hillock was leveled last year for the stadium and the approach road.

After takeover by the caretaker government, the district administration and joint forces asked authorities of housing project to free government lands and water

bodies they grabbed to expand their project areas.

Lands worth about Tk 500 crore have so far been recovered from their possession.