Playing around with strategic tree cover!

THE felling of at least 30,000 jhau trees in Teknaf beach is the latest incident of priceless greenery being plundered in the country.
The trees have been destroyed with the ulterior motive of illegally grabbing the sandy beach. But the damage done to the environment in the process is huge, to say the least. The trees were planted in 1995 and the plan was to create a shield for the coastal people badly exposed to cyclones. The plan worked very well as the trees grew big, but now everything is back to square one as a 10-kilometre swath of land has been completely denuded of any vegetation.
Local influential people are reported to have committed the crime in collaboration with some forest department employees. This is self-evident, but the question remains how could they destroy such a huge number of trees without being noticed by the law enforcers? The police, Rab and BDR personnel did reach the place but only after the plunderers had successfully accomplished their mission. Such lapses can, as they did in this instance, cause colossal damage.
The government departments concerned appear to be content with their age-old ploy of blaming each other when something goes terribly wrong. The forest department is blaming the police for not cooperating with them. Similarly, the local UNO is unhappy with the role of the forest department. What is evident from this blame game is that there is little coordination among the government agencies which actually allowed the plunderers too much latitude as there was virtually none to stop them from felling the trees.
There may be a lot more substance in a forest official's contention that the department does not have enough manpower to patrol the vast areas. Even then, such free-for-all destruction of natural assets cannot be defended. The forest department has clearly failed to save the trees, a task for which it is paid from the government exchequer.
The wanton destruction of greenery in Teknaf has proved beyond any doubt that our concern for the environment is almost never reflected in the activities going on at the field level. The criminals have to be punished, but at the same time it is imperative to find out why the noose of the law gets so slackened from time to time. The forest department owes an explanation to all as to how such large scale felling of trees could take place.