1 held, drives on as action taken lately

Police yesterday arrested a man on charge of cutting government-owned trees on GK (Ganges-Kobadak) canal under the Water Development Board (WDB) in Kushtia's Kumarkhali upazila.

Earlier on Tuesday, WDB authorities filed a GD with Kumarkhali Police Station regarding the illegal tree felling and it was recorded as a case on Sunday, said Jahangir Alam, officer-in-charge of the police station.

"We have arrested Sohrab Uddin of Chandpur village, an alleged tree feller. Drives are on to arrest other perpetrators," he said.

The move came against the backdrop of indiscriminate tree looting from the canal area.

Fifteen years ago, various species of trees were planted on three kilometres of the canal banks at Niyamatbari village under Chandpur union of the upazila and around 2000 of them matured, said sources in WDB and locals.

But tree looters recently started felling the trees and nearly half of those have already gone.

Visiting the area on Thursday, this correspondent found labourers cutting down trees with axes and saws while some others were taking away the logs. When asked, the labourers said Sohrab Uddin of Chandpur village engaged them in the work. 

"I bought 30 jackfruit trees from Sohrab Uddin for Tk 10,000 to 12,000 each. Several people including timber traders also bought a good number of trees from the same person," said carpenter Zamir Uddin, who arranged cutting the trees.

As this correspondent talked to several WDB officials and locals about the matter, a few of them seeking anonymity pointed the finger at a sub assistant engineer and an office assistant of WDB. 

"One morning around 20 days ago, I saw the two WDB officials putting red marks on trees and since then the tree felling continued. The two officials visited the spot almost every day and talked with the labourers and others involved in the dealing," said Akul Uddin Sheikh, a local. 

The sub assistant engineer under question declined to talk about the matter and said, "The higher officials can comment on the issue, not me."

Piyush Krishna Kundu, executive engineer of Kushtia WDB, said, "We filed a case after knowing about the tree felling. Action will be taken against those involved."

There is no provision for cutting government-owned trees without following proper procedures, said Kushtia Deputy Commissioner Md Aslam Hossain.