Slowly the forest, where once different wildlife including tigers, deer, bears and peafowls used to roam, is becoming occupied by different industries, picnic spots, recreation centres and auto repair workshops, already gobbling up one sixth of the forest.

Local people, and industrialists and politically influential people from the capital got hold of more than 10,000 acres of forestland by the Dhaka-Mymensing highway in the last two decades, forest office sources said.

According to an official estimate of the Department of Forest, a total of 10,366 acres of forestlands in Gazipur and Savar remain in the hands of encroachers, 9,792 acres of which are in Gazipur alone. But other sources said the amount of forestlands in the hands of the encroachers, is no less than 15,000 acres.

According to a government account 2,62,492 acres of forests in the entire country remain in the hands of encroachers. Forest officials said most of the forests were robbed from the forest department through forgery of land records and other documents with the help of local corrupt revenue, land and forest officials.

Before grabbing any forestland, encroachers prepare relevant documents said a forest officer who has been working in Dhaka central forest zone.

"When we file a case, the court order goes in favour of encroachers as they are able to produce documents in their names," he said.

"Sometime we cannot even enter our own forests due to the cases filed by encroachers," the forest officer added.

In Gazipur the number of land related cases is more than 2,400, sources said.

According to a government gazette notification of 1950, the amount of forestland in Gazipur was more or less 63,000 acres under Kaliakoir, Sripur, Kachiaghata and Rajendrapur forest ranges of Dhaka central forest zone. But over the years the grabbers encroached on one sixth of that area.

Recently the government filed cases against Partex Group as it had grabbed 27 acres of forestland in Rajendrapur range.

"We had 39 acres of forestland there. But when Partex grabbed the land we went to the land office and found that only .40 decimal of land is recorded under the forest department the rest was recorded under an individual's name," said the forest officer.

Partex Group later started grabbing forestlands which are still recorded under the forest department.

"We filed cases against them," said another forest officer who archives the documents in the forest office.

A high ranking forest officer said over the years a significant portion of the forestlands was recorded under individual's names through the Revisional Survey (RS) record conducted since 1965.

With the help of land offices and revenue offices, some influential local people and politically influential people from Dhaka recorded forestlands in their names according to the RS record. They also were able to show memos of land tax payments prompting the court to give judgments in favour of the encroachers.

"If we want to collect land records, in most cases land officers tell us that it is not possible to provide land records since the record book is torn," said the forest officer.

According to forest department documents, the department currently have disputes with Sattar Textile regarding 1.44 acre of forestland, with Aziz International over 46 decimals of forestland, and with Fare Trade over one acre in Kaliakoir forest range.

Besides, Solar Ceramic is occupying 2.84 acres, Mita Textile 4 acres, How Are You 5.12 acres, One Textile 6.52 acres, Gratewall Ceramic 7.44 acres, RAK Ltd 4.26 acres, Rashua 4.06 acres, Ridish one acre, Hamim Group 4.08 acres and Sava Garden 10 acres in Sripur forest range.

But all of them have documents in their favour, the validity of which the forest department questions, sources said.

The forest department also said one Dr Abdur Rahman got hold of 89 acres of forestland and established a 'Touhidi Trust' there in 1977. The forest department filed a case against the trust and got a verdict in its favour in 2005.

"But before we could take possession of the disputed forestland, Touhidi Trust filed another case with a lower court obstructing the recovery," said a forest official who dealt with the case.

During the regime of the last government, Orion Group grabbed 23 acres of forestland in Araisho Prasad mouza under Bhaluka.

"The government changed the category of the land from forestland to khas land and allotted that to Orion group. It was a government decision, so we could not do anything," said an official requesting anonymity.

Following the flood in 1988, which had inundated most of the capital, industrialists started setting up their factories on comparatively higher grounds in Gazipur.

Within the last two decades the encroachers grabbed one fourth of the forestland in Gazipur. A forest official said if the government do not take stern measures to stop the encroachment, slowly the whole forest by the GazipurMymensingh highway will be encroached upon.