Shafiul the untouchable
He has plundered over 2,000 trees from a 94-acre state-run farm since May. He won a tender bidding, through dubious means, for removing 731 dead and fallen trees from the farm by July 15. But no one stopped him when he chopped down hundreds of live trees illegally for almost six months.
He himself boasted to have manipulated the bidding of the tender by paying Tk 3.10 lakh to make other bidders pull out of the tender process. But instead of taking any action against him, the Department of Livestock Services (DLS), the owning authority of the farm, recently transferred seven of the farm's whistle-blowing employees.
This all-powerful man is Shafiul Karim alias Emon Mondol -- Krishak League general secretary of Godagari upazila unit in Rajshahi and a close aide of local lawmaker Omar Faruk of Rajshahi-1 (Godagari-Tanore) constituency.
The trees he had been destroying are on the land of Rajbarihat Dairy and Cattle Development Farm in the same upazila.
According to an estimation made by locals and farm staffers, his pillaging has so far caused the state exchequer to incur a loss of not less than Tk 2 crore.
Speaking with this correspondent over phone before, Shafiul had bragged about how he paid Tk 3.10 lakh to manipulate the tender process. “I made other higher offering bidders understand that they are going to lose money making offers so high.”
On November 1, when this correspondent asked Shafiul about allegations over his wrongful acts of plundering live trees owned by the state, he confidently said, “Do your best to write about what you saw.”
Coming from an affluent family and its members known as BNP loyalists, Shafiul, an ICMA student with a Masters in management, joined Awami League in 2012 after a dispute arose with local AL leaders over his construction project at the Rajbarihat farm. His family members had contributed a large chunk of land to the farm, said locals.
Allegations from the locals of illegal tree felling at the farm by Shafiul began to appear in June. On July 31, a concerned citizen in a complaint filed with Godagari upazila nirbahi officer alleged that the state had lost Tk 50 lakh as Shafiul had already chopped down over 500 trees illegally since May.
The Daily Star on August 8 ran a report on Shafiul's illegal tree felling with the headline “Dead trees on auction: live trees plundered”.
Despite all the allegations, the DLS is yet to carry out a proper investigation into the matter.
Instead of looking into the allegations, the DLS allowed Shafiul to plunder state property for nearly six months. Finally, on October 31, the DLS completed its duty by suspending his dead tree removal work as an inspection team of the department found Shafiul's men still chopping down live trees at the farm.
Aynul Haque, director general of DLS, confirmed the suspension order based on the findings by its inspection team.
However, in a perplexing move, the DLS early this month has transferred seven of the farm employees, especially the ones who had been complaining to higher officials of the department about Shafiul's illegal tree felling with the connivance of the farm manager, Tofizul Islam.
The employees, including the ones who were transferred, of the Rajbarihat Dairy and Cattle Development Farm told The Daily Star that the farm does not have any precedent for employee transfers since its inception in 1982 and the ones transferred -- to Sylhet, Savar, Faridpur and Bagerhat -- had joined the farm between 1984 and 1997.
Farm manager Tofizul, however, claimed that the DLS authorities have been transferring its employees who had been working at the same farm, in different parts of the country, for a long period of time.
The only inquiry that has supposedly been conducted on Shafiul's illegal tree felling at the Rajbarihat farm was by Upazila Forest Officer Shariful Islam. Acting on a complaint, Godagari Upazila Nirbahi Officer Zahid Newaj on August 3 had asked him to conduct the inquiry.
For mysterious reasons, that inquiry report has not seen the light of day although the forest officer said he had completed the inquiry in September.
When asked why he did not turn the report in, Shariful said that from the investigation order he could not get a clear understanding whether he was supposed to file any report or not.
About his findings during the inquiry, he said he collected documented proof of tender manipulation by Shafiul. According to his papers, the farm authorities awarded the dead tree removal work to Shafiul for only Tk 8.52 lakh, although two other bidders had made higher offers -- Tk 22 lakh and Tk 25 lakh.
This correspondent also spoke with Rezaul Islam, DLS deputy director who led the inspection team that visited the farm on October 31.
Regarding the reason behind their suspension order against Shafiul's tree felling, he said originally, according to the conditions of the work order, Shafiul was authorised to remove dead or fallen trees from the farm by May 15. He sought a one-month extension for the work as his workers could not work in full swing during May due to the monsoon.
Adding 30 more days to the deadline, “his time had expired on July 15, yet he continued to fell trees illegally,” Rezaul said.
When this correspondent drew the attention of Shafiul, the bidder, and Tofizul, the manager of Rajbarihat Dairy and Cattle Development Farm, regarding the allegations against them, they both answered in a similar fashion.
“Anyone can get confused to see the large number of trees,” said Shafiul.
“The huge number of logs accumulated from the 731 dead or fallen trees can confuse anyone,” Tofizul also said. However, when asked if he could confirm that no live trees were cut down by verifying inventory of trees in the farm, he said the farm maintains no inventory of total trees.
Regarding the allegation of Shafiul's chopping down live trees instead of the dead ones, the DLS deputy director sided with Shafiul, saying that the size of stockpiles of 731 chopped up tree logs may seem larger to the naked eye. “After all, 731 is a huge number. Besides, the farm has no inventory of its trees.”
During a visit to the farm on November 1, this correspondent found stockpiles of freshly chopped down various trees -- mango, koroi, paikor, and neem -- scattered all over the 94-acre farm.
Locals and long-time employees of the farm said even though Shafiul's workers dug out the roots of the chopped down trees and intentionally filled up the cavities in the ground with earth to hide evidence, they could still prove that more than 2,000 trees have been felled by Shafiul's workers since May.
“The farm used to look like a forest... It's all gone now,” said one of the staffers heaving a sigh.
Speaking with this correspondent over phone on November 1, Omar Faruk, MP, rebutted suggestions that he had been condoning and endorsing Shafiul's illegal activities at the farm.
Saying that he had no authority over the affairs of the farm, Omar asked, “Why are the government officials concerned sitting idle?”
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