Mindless road construction damaging hills, forests

Constructed by the LGRD, this road from Telijuri village to Ita tea garden in Raniganj upazila in Moulvibazar district has caused much damage to hillocks and forests in the area.Photo: STAR

Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) has constructed a one kilometre-long road through hillocks from Telijuri village to Ita tea garden under Rajnagar upazila, ignoring the law on forest and environment.
Construction of the road joining Fenchganj-Moulvibazar road at Musuria village caused massive damage to Ita hillock and forest on it.
The road construction has followed setting up of human habitations in the hilly forest area, posing threat to environment and bio-diversity there.
A few decades ago, the deep forests in the nearby hillocks abounded with wild animals including tigers and different kinds of birds, said a few residents of nearby Telijury village.
Locals said they are against the 'development work' that would cause harm to local environment.
“The one kilometre-long new road from Telijuri to Ita tea garden has been constructed under Rural Infrastructure Development Project with a cost of Tk 30 lakh. Final round of the work is now going on,” Abdul Muhit, sub-assistant engineer of Rajnagar upazila office of LGED, said.
Under the same project, there are plans for construction of more roads through hillocks, LGED sources said.
Rajnagar upazila LGED Engineer Sirajul Islam, however, said, “It was an old kutcha (non-metalled) road and the LGED is developing it only. This scheme has been approved from Dhaka.”
He however declined to make any comment about the impact of cutting hillocks for road construction.
Rajnagar UNO Shafayat Mahbub Chawdhury said he will take steps to prevent further hill cutting.
Terming damage to hills and forests as threat for bio-diversity and environment, Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon (Bapa) General Secretary Jamil Sharif said law on environment protection should be strictly enforced.