Indigenous people in Madhupur stage demo

People from different indigenous community living in Madhupur upazila staged demonstration on Monday, bringing allegation that the forest department is attempting to evict them from their own land in the name of recovering forest lands.

Terming the forest department's attempt to evict them a conspiracy, hundreds of people from Garo, Koch and Barman communities brought out a procession and formed a human chain in Madhupur Bus Stand area in the morning.

Later they submitted a memorandum to the prime minister through Madhupur Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Arifa Zohura.

They also announced to hold a "grand rally" at Jalchhatra field on January 31 to press for their demand.

Speaking at the programme, Joyenshahi Adivasi Unnayan Parishad President Eugin Nokrek said, "We recently learnt from a report published in a national daily that the government has decided to recover the country's occupied forest lands. The eviction drive is supposed to start from Gazipur on January 30.

"We have also learnt that this drive will start from Gazipur first and Tangail has been kept second in the list. Local indigenous people have been passing days in fear of eviction," he said.

While talking to this correspondent over telephone, Tangail Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Dr Jahirul Haque said they did not issue any notice to the local forest-dwellers in this regard.

"The government has decided to recover 2.78 lakh acres of forest land across the country, which were captured by grabbers. But we did not get any directive in this regard," added the forest official.