Safari park at Lathitila forest for whom?

Defying repeated calls by the nature-concerned people, the government has passed a project to build a Safari Park in Lathitila reserved forest raising the prospect of destroying one of our last remaining evergreen forests.

The surprising move came in the very last Ecnec meeting of this tenure of the government on Thursday. It also came at a time when it is facing a host of crises. Surely it had many other prior things to do than killing a natural forest.

This also comes when economists are suggesting for taking up austerity measures.

Ecnec has approved Tk 364.11 crore for the first phase of the 5,631-acre Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Safari Park, Moulvibazar Project project -- the country's third safari park, in Lathitila under Juri Forest Range in Moulvibazar.

Remote Lathitila is a unique, mixed-evergreen, stream-fed hilly forest and one of the six trans-border forest reserves of northeast Bangladesh. It has been a reserved forest since 1920 under the Forest Act.

The reserve forest is a natural habitat for more than 200 species of wildlife including endangered ones. Asian elephants, leopard cat, hoolock gibbon, fishing cats, pangolin, assam macaque, civet, hog deer, bears, porcupines are among its residents.

But the forest department, the very government agency which is supposed to protect wildlife and the forest, is now plans to destroy it and make it a garden for caged animals.

Following the Ecnec meeting, the minister for ministry of environment, forest and climate change himself released a video message expressing his gratitude and thanks to all concerned for approving the project!

In his video message, he said animals including tigers, rhinos, lions, crocodiles and gharials, which are all alien species to this forest, will be kept in Lathitila Safari park.

When a worldwide movement is growing against keeping animals in cages, our environment minister, in his video message, said the caged animals of the safari park will attract foreign tourists!

Given Lathitila's remote position in the northeastern border, it is very hard to understand why on earth would there be a safari park there.

The answer is simple and it is in the video message of the minister.

The minister, Md Shahab Uddin, said in his video message, "The construction of the Safari Park will… create employment, and above all improve the quality of life of the people in the area."

He said that the Safari Park would be built here ensuring protection of the people living in the area.

He released the video message to the people of his constituency, where Lathitila forest lies. And the project has been undertaken with a political motive to benefit the local vested interest groups ahead of the national elections.