Giant tree felled

An allegation has been raised against the acting headmaster of a school in Dimla upazila for felling a giant mahogany tree illegally on the campus in his own interest.

Locals filed a written complaint to the deputy director (DD) of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board in Rangpur, district education officer (DEO), upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) and the local press club January 7.

In the complaint, it is mentioned that the acting headmaster of Dimla Girls' High School Mahfuzur Rahman felled the old mahogany tree on the campus a month ago without prior permission from the teachers' council.

He then kept the logs behind the school building to remove them at a suitable time, it is alleged in the complaint.

A teacher of the school, on condition of anonymity, said the price of the tree might be around Tk 30,000. He said the headmaster ignored their queries regarding what he was going to do with the tree.

Rejecting the allegation, the headmaster said his predecessor felled it before he (Mahfuzur) took charge on August 1 last year and kept the logs behind the school building for reasons unknown.

DEO Shafiqul Islam said a person has to take permission from the district and upazila forest committee before felling a tree but no such procedure was maintained in this case.